The Republican journal., 1892-01-14
Decadence of Sailing Ships.
Written for the Republican Journal.

both as regards their necessities to COM
merce and their value as investments. fur
nishes material for much thought. What
has tended to bring about such wonder
full changes as the past quarter of a cen
fury has produced? What may reasonably
be expected of the future in the same re-
lation? Prophecies in this direction can
be but speculative at best, but we are fore
ed to believe that the steady encroach-
ments of steam, or perhaps some superior
power finally, will drive sail tonnage into
less profitable branches of trade, which
eventually they can accept as their share
of the world carrying trade or leave the
field entirely clear for their competitors
There are times, and the present seems
good illustration of those temporal peri
DDS, when the building of sailing vessels
takes new lease of life, but it is never a
long one and the re- action brings more
forcibly into prominence the superiority of
steam as a motive power. The only way,
apparently, to fight off, for a time, the
conqucring monster, is to build vessels of
immense size, both for coastwisc and for
eign business. This principle is now be-
ing carried out, with the probability that
our mammoth four masters, so long as they
keep within the coast trade and escape
the competition of foreign tramp steam
ers. will hold their own and perhaps do
better than the various steam methods of
on. In foreign commerce the same meth
3D. if applied to the building of ships car
! rying 4. 0G0 and ). 00O TONS allows of fairly
successful competition with steamers. But
it seems as if deep-water business must
surely stray into this new channel. more
and more. as time goes on.
But such results are not likely to be
reached for many years Old customs and
methods seem to have the same tenacious
hold ON life that very many aged persons
have who inherit the muscular strength
and hardy lungs of their forefathers. a
gradual belief and confidence in improved
systems has caused the death blow to many
relics of the past, especially in the working
world. That sailing craft must eventually
follow this course seems but too evil
dent. There appears at first thought to be
three important reasons for the almost as
founding changes in this branch of indus
that have n.a1I,1aI 1,n .la,y, of
our civil wal There may be other minor
causes that have assisted to bring about
the state of affairs that exists today, but
they are comparatively of little moment
The leading factor is in this relation
we assume to be the vast improve
ments made in steam ships during this pc
ing of a great fleet of steam vessels of neal
ly every nationality, to cover all oceans,
seas and rivers of business importance: to
contest with sailers not only the carrying
of the world commodities but to enter
as well the haunts of pleasure and puff out
their self satisied superiority there. The
A">p 10 'tNo WI CNlNiCl4i lllC SLOW, OH
fashioned ways of our fathers are not in
style today. What would have been ac-
cepted as customary and sufficient fifty
years ago, or perhaps twenty-five, would
not be considered as up to the standards
of the present. Speed has become such a
necessity in commerce that it almost seems
q times ~ If Sofn
to it. Perhaps in years to come we shall
be demanding that our imported wines and
Pans suits be brought only by the ocean
flyers, lest the styles shall change dur
ing the voyage. This is the way the times
are tending and the spirit of it all is to
draw slowly but very surely the mantle Of
extinction over our proud fleet of clippers.
Another development Of the past two de-
cades that has made steam more service
able and has contributed SO completely to
bringing the great markets of the east and
west into nearer relations, has been the
building and opening of great canal con-
Meeting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
This was staggering blow to the world s
sailing fleet. The influence that the Suez
canal has exerted on commerce is immeas-
urable. That its capacities have not been
reached, and can be made almost unendinp,
seem to be truths beyond dispute. Realiz-
ing what has been accomplished by this
water way, to promote the general use of
steam vessels, because whatever tends to
decrease distance serves to make this class
OF craft possible aud profitable as freight
carriers, leads us to reflect on what effect
| the two great canals now under construc-
| ton on the American continent NAV have
on the merchant marine of the world. Ii
seems certain that the usefulness of sailing
craft will be still further narrowed by the
changes that will ensue on their compile
ton We speak of the two canals as pros
pective; possibly only one OF them will
ever be finished. That one seems likely to
be under American control and will be
ample for all business offered. We see it
made possible Tor a cargo OF grain to be
delivered in Liverpool twenty-five or thir-
ty days from San Francisco instead of CON
Stunning the hundred and twenty. or such a