The herald., 1893-01-30
THE AMERICAN STEAMSHIP.
From the Days of E. K. Collins
to Allan McLane.
The Collins Line and Its Series of
Undeserved Mishaps.
Tho side-Lever Engine Superseded by
the Osciilator, and 1t Displaced by
the Walking Beam-some Old
California Favorites.

Will the return OF the Democratic
party to power restore the old time pres
tige of the American flag upon the high
seas? This is question which we often
hear asked by men in mercantile life,
and to which ready response ia not al
ways forthcoming. Before the outbreak
OF the war the American clippers not
only carried nearly all the wheat and
-four that went from the Pacific states
to the United Kingdom, but they like
wise carried at various times during the
Crimean war large shipments of troops,
cavalry horses, ammunition and other
appsndages of the ''pomp and circum-
stance of glorious war;"
x*x
There was, beyond this, another reason
which abated the interest in ship build
ing that had prevailed for the previous
quarter century. 1t was that the rising
generation was not mentally the equal
OF the one that was just dropping into
the sere and yellow leaf" The
rapid rise to wealth of the
Vanderbilts, Goulds and Ssges. through
the devious methods OF the stock
exchange had been bad example to
the youth of the nation. The slow and
sure methods bv which Aspinwall,
Grinnell, Kermit, Minturn and Marshall
had amassed fortunes of two or three
millions each, were not fast enough for
these youngsters. Besides, they, unlike
their fathers (who bsgan life as poor
boys) had never felt the value of poverty
as discipline.
1t has been customary for the Rep1b-
lican newspapers to charge the disap-
pearance of the American flag from the
high eeas to the presence of the Anglo
COME 1erate cruisers, such as the Ala
bama, Sumter, Florida and Shenandoah
during the "late unpleasantness." But
the truth was that Republican legisla-
ton in congress, the giving away of the
public lands to corporations for rail-
road building purposes, had quite as
much to do with it as the rebel privs-
teers. The high rates of freight around
Cape Horn had long since begun to
dwindle down from $35 per ton TO about
one-hslf that sum. The ships were
growing older and weaker and the i'm
mediate prospect of hsving to replace
them WAS by no means hattering.
x*x
The old men saw this with eyes of
prophets, and noses that scented the
storm from afar off. They resolved to
guard against the wreck of their accumu-
lations by investments in railway bonds
and securities, which demanded no in
surance at the hands OF any underwrit-
ers. And so it was that. within period
~ eCnA 0lN 000 xx,sth
| drawn from sail and steam vessels
| \Wnlcu woioivfp Ivp III UIiO txvoisy arJr>
and invested in railroads, as well se in
oil lande. Forty years ago when Will
lam and John Aspinwall and Edgar
Rowland were alive, that WAS the fore
most firm in all Americas aggregation
of busy brains. Today, if am correctly
informed, there is not man of either
name engaged in that great firms work.
The heirs of those grand old men are
living in Europe, mere idlers and vast
ing shadows of once great names, while
the active business operations are being
carried on by men who began as their
fathers began, mere clerks and errand
boys, and who have since been promoted
for honestly handling ''other peoples
money"
1t is not necessary fer me to 60 back
to the days of the Savannah, the Sirius,
the Great Western, the Sarah Sands and
the Great Britain, to adduce my theories
upon the steamship of today. It is
enough for me to begin in 1S49 with the
two rival lines across the Atlantic, the
Collins and the Cunard. The latter ran
under heavy subsidy from the British
government and were all paddlewheel
ships up to 1860. The following table,
showing the increase of size OF their
vessels and the years in which built,
will give the reader good idea of the
evolution of the European steamship
traffic:
Year. Name. Tons HIP
1912 Hibernia. ........ 500 $50