The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-07-16
CANADIAN FAST LINE.
Details a of Huge Subsidized Scheme.

OfNiNH1lffN TFtO LINZ.
Details a of Huge Subsidized Scheme
Quebec, July 1.-THE necessary capital
has been subscribed in England for build
ing the steamers that are to belong to the
new fast Atlantic service between Canada
and Liverpool This service was project
ed by the Tory Administration at Ottawa
The Liberal Administration has carried
out the plan on somewhat easier terms for
the Canadian taxpayer. There are to be
four steamers of 10, 600 tons gross register
each, length 525 feet, draught of water
not exceeding rs feet inches, designed
of which 500 are to be fitted with cold
storage accommodation The contract
further provides that they shall be built,
fitted and maintained in all respects equal
to the best Atlantic steamers now afioat,
such as the Campania and Lucania, that
they shall carry not less than 300 first
class, 200 second class and 800 Storage
passengers, and make the trip across the
Atlantic from port to port at an average
speed of 500 knots every twenty -four
hours, Or nearly 81 knots an hour.
ANNUAL SUBSIDY s77a, 500.
The contract has been awarded to Peter
sen, Tate Il Co. of Newcastle-on-Ty Tyne.
1t will last for ten years. The Canadian
Government gives an annual subsidy of
$5i 5, 900 and the British Government an
annual subsidy of 1857, 500, making
total yearly subvention of s772, 500 for the
service. The steamers are to carry the
British and Canadian mails, to sail from
Quebec or Montreal in summer and from
ST. John, N. b., or Halifax in winter,
and not to call at any foreign port.
Hitherto the Allan vessels, which have
had the carrying of the mails, have made
Portland their winter port in order to
obtain cargoes from the Grand Trunk and
American railways. The new arrange
ment confines the fast steamers to St.
John or Halifax when the navigation of
the St. Lawrence is closed. The steamers
are to be built under the supervision of
the British Admiralty, and in case of a
maritime war are to be fitted as cruisers.
Two are to be ready to perform fort
nightly service on or before May 81, 1899,
two more in time to begin weekly SER
as good as awarded to the Adams BY the
Tory Administration, but the Liberals,
on taking office last year, opened negotia-
lions with the Petersen company and
finallytelesed with the offer.
An elaborate system of cold storage for
the transport of butter, eggs, poultry,
fruit and dressed meat will be provided
in connection with the steamers; in fact,
will be established this year in connec-
ton with existing lines. The Govern
ment pays considerable part of the in
itial cost of fitting seventeen steamers
now running to the United Kingdom
with cold-storage plants, and exacts in
return that the owners shall not charge
shippers more than sixteen shillings a
ton extra for the accommodation.
LINE NOT LIKELY TO PAY.
1t is not altogether clear that the fast
line will pay. The steamers will, of
course, have to depend chiefly on passen-
ger traffic, and comparatively few passen-
gers cross the Atlantic by the St. Law
renee route in summer, while in winter
the bulk of the travel from Canada goes
by way of New York. The Toronto mer-
chant, for instance, would hardly take a
free pass and go to Halifax or ST. John
in winter when he can reach New York
in half the time and have something to
see when he gets there.
Sir Sanford Fleming. who was chief
engineer of Government railways in
Canada, takes the ground that twenty
knot navigation is impracticable, or, at
any rate, will be extremely dangerous in
the St. Lawrence during the summer
season, owing to the prevalence of fog,
icebergs and submerged ice. There is a
long stretch of river navigation from
Montreal to Quebec, ITO miles, in part
through channels which have to be
dredged, and another stretch, of nearly
two hundred miles, past numerous islands
that form irregular currents, from Quebec
to the mouth Of the St. Lawrence; while
from the mouth at Remouski or Tadousac
to the Straits of Belle Isle navigation is
frequently delayed by fog and ice from
Labrador and Hudson's Strait. Sir San
ford has written couple of pamphlets in
opposition to the fast line. His idea is
that none but steamships of moderate
speed, designed principally for freight,
should be employed on the ST. Lawrence
route; that "any attempt to establish
line to rival the steamships running to and
from New York must result in disap-
pointment, and that if we desire to estab-
lish fast line successfully the vessels
must arrive at and take their departure
from one Of our Atlantic seaports,'' and
he names Sydney, Cape. Breton, as the
likeliest of the seaports because it is only
2160 miles from Loeb Ryan, in Ireland,
which could be reached by twenty knot
steamer in four and one half days, where
as he places the distance from New York,
or rather Sandy Hook, to Liverpool at
3036 miles.
The weak spot about Sydney is that it
is 900 miles by rail from Montreal land
1900 from Toronto. Toronto is onl = 500
miles or so from New York, Montreal
something less. Moreover, Sydney is a
squalid village, practically out of the
world-certainly remote from the channels
of trade and travel.
After boyish quarrel, ten year-old
Inhn Anstin stabbed and killed his