The Palatka news and advertiser., 1915-07-30
THE ROMANCE OF THE MERCHANT MARINE


| the privateers, or "letters of mar
que," showed them to be a maritime
contingent worthy of the most res
pectful attention-particularly from
the enemy! These avaricious little
sea weasels, scarcely ever carrying
more than sixteen or eighteen guns
land manned with forty or fifty hard
bitten, reckless Yankee seamen, in
flicted immense damage on English
merchant shipping-and incidentally,
earned enormous profits for the thrift
ty business men who "put up" for the
ventures. The foundation was laid
for more than one comfortable for
tune along the Atlantic coast coun-
try by the returns from such voyages,
one successful trip not infrequently
paying the entire cost of building,
outftting and manning the privateer,
leaving her subsequent earnings clear
"velvet" for her owners.
The object of privateering was
frankly and purely mercenary, gain
and not glory being the business In
hand; but after a taste Of blood. it
was mighty seldom that a privateer
ever declined scrap, even against @
hostile man-of-war and where the
odds were unpromising. And, Lord!
but they were fighters! Under the
stimulus of patriotism and pelf com
bined, they came out victorious where
tactics and discipline broke down in
defeat and rout. The marine annals
of Salem and Baltimore fairly sp r
kle with incidents of heroism, dash
and audacity. What reader of our
HISTORY ever failed to thrill unspeak-
ably over the tale of how the small
privateer, General Armstrong" ly-
ing at anchor in the roadstead of Fay
al, beat off, with her eleven guns and
ninety men, three attacks from a
British squadron, in which not less
than twelve hundred of the enemy,
aided by the fire from the "Carna-
tion," brig-of-war, repeatedly rush
ed the American vessel in great
barges, only to be driven back with
losses more than thrice as great as
the total number of men on the "Arm-
strong!' And this is Just one in
stance to stand as an example Of
1t is notable that the matter of an
American merchant marine was con-
sidered of such Importance during
the swaddling days of our nation,
that about the first real legislation
enacted by our first Congress directed
itself toward the encouragement of
shipping and the increase of Ameri-
can tonnage. AS result, our mer-
chant fleet made a jump of 546,4
tons between the years of 1889 and
1895, increasing from POI, ,562 at the
beginning of the former, to 747,965
tons at the close of the latter year.
Some little growth, what? Then, on
the heels of this, came the wars of
Napoleon against England and her al
lies; and this was an undisguised
blessing for maritime America, for
large and urgent demand was created
for American products in Europe. and
American ships to move them there.
The interruption caused by our own
war of 1912 was very slight, in re-
ality, as is shown by a tonnage rec
ord of 1,2S0,167 in 1920, a full half
of this being engaged in our foreign
carrying trade.
From 1920 really dates the rise of
the American merchant marine-a
movement that reached its full efflore-
scence during the clipper era be-
tween the years 1S48 and 1857. Dur
ing these thirty-seven years of fat
ness and prosperity, our merchant
marine disputed the supremacy of the
high seas with Great Britain, and, in
deed, toward the end, owned a ton
mage greater than the United King
dom and almost equal to that of the
whole British Empire 1864 900
Our flag tioated in every breeze of
the Seven Seas. Wherever men went
down to the sea in ships, Old Glory
could be found. In the Far East our
ships had penetrated to China and
raped the tea-and-silk carrying bust
ness from England. From 1882 the
registered tonnage of New York alope
was greater than that of any city in
the entire world, saving London only.
at any day of the year not less than
five hundred vessels might be counted
at anchor in her harbor. Her keen
rosed traders and merchants smelt
cut traffic even in the remotest cor
ners Of the earth, and there they sent
their ships. Some of the oldest and
riost famous passenger lines had al
ready been established. The two
Thompsons, Francis and jeremiah,
with Isaac Wright, Benjamin Mar
shall and other far-sighted capital
lists, started the old Black Ball line
in 1916, to take care of the packet
business between New York and Liv-
erpool They had four ships of
about five hundred tons each: and
they established a regular schedule
at first, of ship on the first of ev-
erv month. The business soon out
grew these limits, so there was add
Ell another sailing date, the sixteenth
Of each month.
The Black Ball did not long have
things its own way, however. In
1921 Messrs. Byrnes, Grimble & Co.
the Red Star Line. The
Swallow Tail Line had already cut
into the good game under the man.
agement of Fish, Grinnell & Co. !
Competition grew spirited, to the ad-
vantage of the public, as always. By
1892 a weekly packet service to Liv-
erpool was in full swing, and there
was also direct line to London. BY