The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-06-14

peller, Isl feet i'll diameter her gross ton
mage was 1915, and she had berths for 36C
cabin passengers. The Great Britain ma lie
but two passages across the Atlantic. The
last departure from Liverpool for New York
took place on September %, 1916, when she
1 carried lS5 passengers aud large cargo
That same night she ran ashore in Dan
drum Bay, where she lay for year, and
was finally sold for a small sum. This loss
proved too much for the company, which
dissolved in l54S. The third Of the three
pioneer companies established in 1888 was
the TRANSATLANTIC STEAMSHIP COMPANY,
which selected Liverpool as starting
| point, the two rival concerns having chosen
respectively Portsmouth and Bristol Their
first ship, the Royal William, was returned
| to her original owners after few passages,
and replaced by the liverpool, which, after
making six voyages to and from New York,
was sold to the Peninsular and Oriental
| Company.
We have now briefly sketched the history
of the three pioneer ocean steamship cOmpa-
MES They proved beyond doubt the pOssi-
bilities of success, but they failed, as pio-
neers generally do. In 1889, the British
Government having advertised for proposals
to establish regular postal communication
with Halifax and Boston, the contract was
taken by three gentlemen, Messrs. Samuel
Cunard, of Halifax, George Burns, of Glas-
cow, and Charles MacIver, of Liverpool. On
July 4, 1910, the mail service was commenced
by the Britannia steamer, which, including
the detoxr to, and detention Of twelve hours
at Halifax, completed the voyage from Liv-
erpool to Boston in fourteen and half days
| Four steamers performed the service,
which, at first, was monthly, then fortnight
| ly, and for which 60 900 pounds sterling were
paid yearly by the British Government.
| This subsidy was subsequently increased to
f145, 900, and New York WAS substituted for
Boston every alternate voyage. This COM
pany have built, or bought and owned, las
steamers, Ill of which have been engaged
in the Transatlantic trade Their Trans
Atlantic feet at present consists of twenty
five vessels, all except the paddle-whee
Scotia, being iron-screw propellers, with an
| aggregate tonnage Of &c, 600 and since the
starting of the Britannia in 1884, the Cuaard
Company hare not lost a single life nor letttr
through the carelessncss Of their Employer
or misfortune to their ships. Yet this
vast and prosperous concern, the very name
Of which is q synonym the wide world over
for speed, comfort, regularity aud safety.
sprang from very small beginning so fal
back as 1918, in which year two wealthy
Glasgow burghers, James and George Burns,
entered into partnership ard onga! ed il
| shipping. During 1872 the Cunard steamers
made lH round voyages or IA passages, the
largest number of any line entering New
York. The number of passengers carried
during the same period was 1851 of whom
977O cabin. and 46,655 steerage passengers
sailed from Liverpool to America, and S540
cabin and 7646 Storage passengers left our
shores for EurOp'. The cargOes to and from
Liverpool amounted in all to $4,000 tons.
Notwithstanding the length of time the
Cunard Company have been in existence,
and the great number of ships employed by
them, they have only lost two steamers
the Columbia and the 7ripoli- neither wreck
being accompanied by loss of life.
Up to this point all the ocean steamers
were British built, and British owned But
in 1847 the Americans reused themselves
to assert their equality in steam navigation
and formed the Ocean Steam Navigation
Company, which contracted with the United
States Government to carry the United
States mail between New York and Bremen
twice month, touching at COwes They
built the Washington and Hermann, each
224 feet long, 80 feet broad, % feet deep, and
100 tors. But the steamers proved too
slow, and at the expiry Of the contract the
line was discontinued, and the ships trans
ferred to the Pacific line. The next company
was the New York and Havre Steam Nayi-
war in 1861, the line was Withdrawn.
The strange fatality that had always at
tended American transatlantic steamship
companies was again repeated in the rise
and fall Of the Collins line, organized in
1549. Their four pioneer ships, the atlantic,
Pacific, arctic and Baltic, surpassed anything
afoat in size, speed, and splendor of fittings
and accommodations. Each steamer cost
no less than $3.50, 1000. Their speed was un-
equalled and their subsidy from the Gov
ernment amounted to $S58,OOO year. Yet,
in spite of all these advantages, these steam
ers were run at great loss. and in six years
the company was declared bankrupt. The
arctic was lost, with nearly all her passen-
gers; the Pacific went on one of her home
voyages, aud has never since been heard of:
the atlantic and Baltic, after rOtting in their
docks, were sold for old iron, and the Adriatic.
a fifth steamer, was sold to an English com
pany.
The Inman line was started in 1850, and
comprised the City Of Glasgow, the Ctty of
Manchester, the kangaroo, the City of Balti-
more, and the City Of Washington. This line
now owns thirteen steamers, and although
it has proved prosperous, it has lost six
passenger steamers, one Of which sailed from |
New York for Liverpool, in 1870 with III |
passengers, and has never since been heard Of |
The next attempt to establish an American |
line was made by Vanderbilt, who gave up |
the attempt after three years trial, and |
sold his entire steam feet to the Pacific Mail |
Company.
As yet, every effort to knit together New
York and Glasgow by steam had failed, when
n 1856 Glasgow firm, Handyside & Hender-
ION, who owned some ten or twelve sailing
'hips, which traded to South America and In
Tia, converted one of them, the Tempest, into a
crew steamer, and dispatched her to New
York If in that year, 1856, any one had said
% these Glasgow merchants, Seventeen
'ears hence you will be running more than
! score Of steamers across the Atlantic, and
ours will be the largest steamship line in
he world" he would have been laughed at
y madman. Ye., at the present moment,
his Anchor Line comprises feet IF ocean
which in respect to number, ton
Rage and extent of operations, surpasses
hat of any other company. Its growth has
'een 50 extraordinarily rapid that its
history reads like chapter of romance.
rom the outset the venture was success.
The enormous and rapidly growing trade
4 Lanarkshire, and the west Of Scotland