The herald., 1893-02-12

and these ships, carrying easily 1850 to
1000 tons of measurement goods, made
within day of as good time on con
sumption of 80 tons as the Scotia had
been able to do with 95 tons in good
weather, and 120 when it was blowing
hard. II any man but Allen McLane
had been at the head of the Pacific Mail
company at that time he would have
seen the handwriting on the wall--the
demand for increased epeed, more stow
age capacity and less combustion of fuel.
x*x
That good-natured and amiable gen.
tleman, however, saw nothing but the
comforts and ease of a voyage on such
palatial ships as the Henry Chauncey
and Colorado, and the warning con-
tanned in the four new ships of the Gu
nard line, the China, Java, Cuba and
Parthia, passed by him unheeded. In
1865 Cornelius Cole, then a senator from
this state, procured the passage of a
subsidy granting the Pacific Mail CON-
psny $4,000 per trip for carrying the
mails once q month from San Francisco
to Hong Kong, by way OF Yokohama, in
Japan.
Don't understand me as blaming Mr..
Cole for the advocacy of this proposition.
l would have advocated it under the
sanctity of a senator's oath, as we'll as
in the capacity of private citizen, for
have seen England outstrip us under the
present system of subsidies till we are
really fourth-rate commercial power,
as l shall presently show. Today the
old and rickety City of Peking, built by
the shoddy contractor, John Roach, are
together with John and Adolph Spreck-
els two Australian vessels, the only
American steamers in foreign trade.
like to hear these Britishers talk
about how the compound engine (the
principle of which was demonstrated in
the steamer Empire State on Lake Erie
in 1852 of John Elder had side-tracked
American commerce. The compound
engine was an established fact in Amer
can commerce before John Elder was
out OF bis apprenticeship. can show
you dozen American vessels propelled
by compound engines that can beat the
time of the best ships of the same size
that John Elder ever built in his life,
little later on.
luc dCiilC mdll COuipduy UullU lOI buo
China route the grandest and most COM
Portable ships that ever turned a wheel.
These were the America, 4200 tons net /;
the China and Great Republic, $500 tons
net; and the Japan and Alaska, 1000
tons net. All these chips had a single
beam engine 10S inches by IL feet stroke.
In addition to these they had the Col.
orado and Arizona from the Panama
route, to replace which they built the
Arizona and Montana, each 3200 tons
net, with 100-inch cylinder and IL feet
stroke. The latter is believed to have
been the fastest sidewheel steamer that
ever carried the American flag.
NV
By 1872 these enormous steamers,
whose engines occupied twice the space
OF the present triple expansion engines,
and, by the way, never could run as fast
by three miles per hour, had got to be
thoroughly obsolete, such as remained.
A new board of directors had got into
the Pacific Mail and it was evident the
grand old paddle-wheel ships he'd to 60.
anchorage in Yokohoma, the Japan de-
stroyed off Formosa and the Alaska
hogged to death on the rocks at Aber-
deem, just outside OF Hong Kong.
M*x
The Colorado and China were rotten,
and the Great Republic, which cost
$3.50 900, was sold to D. 0. Mills for
$4,000. She was subsequently wrecked
at the mouth OF the Columbia under cir
cumstances that indicated she was "sold
to the insurance companies" The
company, after letting several brick
fr1l
ships such as they should have built 10
years before. These four were of 2500
tons each, 2000-horae power, and named
and Acapulco, and could carry from $50
Golden Gate or John L. Stephens on 80
tons less consumption.
x*x
Then came the American eplurge-the
building of the two great steamers, City
of Peking and City of Toxic, which were
launched in 1874. The former was the
frat in the water and she was that day
the largest steamer in the world in COM
mission, as the Great Eastern had been
already condemned. Her tonnage was
$3.50 tons and her horse power 324O, be-
ing double set OF compound engines,
set tandem. Today she is only third
class vessel in point of size and speed,
though not in appointments. The To-
kio was wrecked near Aberdeen by jeff
Maury, in whom good mate was
spoiled to make very inferior captain.
x*x
E2The deposition OF Allan McLane and
the election of E. X. Stockwell, Chi
cago stockbroker, to fill the place was q
hard blow to the Pacific Mail. He was
man of no commercial education and
had no ideas above stock gambling
Every time he got "cinched'' in Wall
street he would go after the pay rolls of
the Pacific Mail Steamship company
and cut down every body's wages. Then
he sent out a Washington lobbyist by
the name OF Irwin, a trafficker in the
consciencea of congressman, to be asso-
ciate agent with Capt. oliver Eldridge,
which 80 disgusted that pure old Yankee
sailor that he resigned in disgust.
#*#
Since that time the Pacific Mail,
which was originally capitalized at
81 500, 600 in 1S48. and rose to valua-
ton OF $26, 500, 600 in 1865, has on
several occasions come very near going
by the board. 1t is now mere "tender
behlnd'' to the Southern Pacific and
their Pacific roads, and its prestige as q
great common carrier IS departed for
ever. | ask men who love the American
flag to look over the annexed list of
steamships under foreign flags in the