The Romance of Industry and Invention Part 12

The _Nautical Magazine_ writer gravely comments upon this scheme as quite plausible. He is indeed inclined to be antic.i.p.atory. Instead of seventy-three days to Australia, he is of opinion that the voyage may ultimately be accomplished in fifty, and that the table of time generally may be reduced by about one-third throughout; although, to qualify his somewhat daring speculations, he admits that it is well to base the calculations on the safe side. But the Honourable East India Company a.s.serted their prerogatives, and put a stop to the scheme of the New Bengal Steam Company, as the undertaking was to have been called.

This raised a strong feeling of dissatisfaction, and the Court of Directors was obliged to provide a subst.i.tute in lieu of the new line they had refused to sanction. Their own homely, lubberly craft were quite unequal to the requirements of 'prompt despatch' which even then was beginning to agitate the public mind. The possibility of establishing steam-communication between England and India had been clearly demonstrated as early as the year 1825, when the _Enterprise_, of 480 tons and 120 horse-power, sailed from London on the 16th of August, and arrived in Calcutta on the seventh of December. She was the first steamer to make the pa.s.sage from this country to our great Eastern Empire; the first, indeed, ever to double the stormy headland of the Cape.

But it was not until the people of India began to pet.i.tion and the merchants of London to clamour for the adoption of steam-power in the Indian navigation that the conservative old magnates of John Company were stimulated into action. Lieutenant Waghorn's Overland Route had almost entirely superseded the sea-voyage by way of the Cape; but the want of an efficient packet service between London and Alexandria, and Suez and Bombay, was greatly felt. Accordingly, in December 1836, the steamship _Atalanta_ was despatched from Falmouth to ply on the Indian side of the route. She was a vessel of 630 tons burden, with engines of 210 horse-power, and was built at Blackwall by the once famous firm of Wigram & Green. The orders of Captain Campbell, who commanded her, were that he was to steam the whole distance, only resorting to sail-power in case of a failure of machinery, in order fully to test the superiority of the marine engine over canvas. She sustained an average speed of about eight knots an hour during the entire pa.s.sage, and but for her repeated stoppages would undoubtedly have accomplished the quickest voyage yet made to India. She was followed, in March 1837, by the _Bernice_, of 680 tons and 230 horse-power. This vessel, which likewise made the run without the a.s.sistance of her sails, left Falmouth on March 17, and arrived at Bombay on the 13th of June.

As the race between the _Sirius_ and the _Great Western_ may be said to have inaugurated the steam-navigation of the Atlantic, so did the voyages of the _Atalanta_ and _Bernice_ first establish regular communication by steamers between Great Britain and India. True, there had been desultory efforts of enterprise prior to this time, and the pioneer of the Peninsular and Oriental steamers, the _Royal Tar_, had sailed some three years before; but there was no continual service. The _Times_ of November 11, 1838, pointed out the approaching change.

'Scarcely,' it says, 'has the wonder created in the world by the appearance of the _Great Western_ and _British Queen_ begun to subside, when we are again called upon to admire the rapid strides of enterprise by the notice of an iron steamship, the first of a line of steamers to ply between England and Calcutta, to be called the _Queen of the East_, 2618 tons, and 600 horse-power. This magnificent vessel is designed by Mr W. D. Holmes, engineer to the Bengal Steam Committee, for a communication between England and India. Great praise is due to Captain Barber, late of the Honourable East India Company's service, the agent in London for the Steam Committee in Bengal, who has given every encouragement to Mr Holmes in carrying forward his splendid undertaking.

When these vessels are ready, we understand the voyage between Falmouth and Calcutta will be made in thirty days.'

From this time ocean steamers multiplied rapidly. One after another of the now famous shipping firms sprang up, beginning with the Cunard and the Peninsular and Oriental lines. The first British steamship was registered at London in the year 1814: in 1842 there were 940 steamers registered; and already was the decay of the sailing-ship so largely antic.i.p.ated, that Mr Sydney Herbert, in a Committee of the House of Commons, had this same year pointed out 'that the introduction of steamers, and the consequent displacement of the Leith smacks, Margate hoys, &c., would diminish the nursery for seamen by lessening the number of sailing-vessels.'

THE NEW CUNARDERS.

Less than fifty years ago the Eastern Steam-navigation Company having failed to obtain the contract to carry the mails from Plymouth to India and Australia--in vessels of from twelve hundred to two thousand tons, with engines of from four to six hundred horse-power, which were never built--began to consider a new enterprise, suggested by the late Isambard K. Brunei. This was to build the largest steamer ever yet constructed, to trade with India round the Cape of Good Hope. The general commercial idea was, that this leviathan vessel was to carry leviathan cargoes at large freights and great speed, to Ceylon, where the goods and pa.s.sengers would be rapidly trans-shipped to smaller swift steamers for conveyance to various destinations in India, China, and Australia. The general mechanical idea was, that in order to obtain great velocity in steamers it was only necessary to make them large--that, in fact, there need be no limit to the size of a vessel beyond what might be imposed by the tenacity of material. On what was called the tubular principle, Brunei argued--and proved to the satisfaction of numerous experts and capitalists--that it was possible to construct a vessel of six times the capacity of the largest vessel then afloat that would steam at a speed unattainable by smaller vessels, while carrying, besides cargo, all the coal she would require for the longest voyage.

Thus originated the _Great Eastern_, which never went to India, which ruined two or three companies in succession, which cost 120,000 to launch, which probably earned more as a show than ever she did as an ocean-carrier--except in the matter of telegraph cables--and which ign.o.bly ended a disastrous career by being sold for 16,000, and broken up at New Ferry, on the Mersey.

We are now entering upon a new era of big ships, in which such a monster as the _Great Eastern_ would be no longer a wonder. Two additions to the Cunard fleet, the _Campania_ (1892) and _Lucania_ (1893), are within a trifle as large as she, but with infinitely more powerful engines and incomparably greater speed.

We need not suppose, however, that the idea of big ocean steamers has been the monopoly of this country. So long ago as 1850 or thereabouts, Mr Randall, a famous American shipbuilder, designed, drafted, and constructed the model of a steamer for transatlantic service, 500 feet long by 58 feet beam, to measure 8000 tons. A company was formed in Philadelphia in 1860 to carry out the project; but the civil war broke out soon after, and she was never built.

The _Great Eastern_ was launched in January 1858, and her princ.i.p.al dimensions were these: Length between perpendiculars, 680 feet; breadth of beam, 83 feet; length of princ.i.p.al saloons, 400 feet; tonnage capacity for cargo and coals, 18,000 tons; weight of ship as launched, 12,000 tons; accommodation for pa.s.sengers, (1) 800, (2) 2000, (3) 1200 = 4000; total horse-power, 7650. She had both screw and paddles for propulsion, and her displacement was 32,160 tons.

By this time the Cunard Company had been eighteen years in existence.

They started in 1840 with the _Britannia_--quickly followed by the _Acadia_, _Columbia_, and _Caledonia_, all more or less alike--which was a paddle-steamer of wood, 207 feet long, 34 feet broad, 22 feet deep, and of 1156 tons, with side-lever engines developing 740 indicated horse-power, which propelled the vessel at the average speed of nine knots an hour. There was accommodation for 225 tons of cargo and 115 cabin pa.s.sengers--no steerage in those days--who paid thirty-four guineas to Halifax and thirty-eight guineas to Boston, for pa.s.sage, including provisions and wine.

At the time of the _Great Eastern_ the latest type of Cunarder was the _Persia_, and it is interesting to note the development in the interim.

This vessel was 380 feet long, 45 feet broad, 31 feet deep, of 3870 tons, with engines developing 4000 indicated horse-power, propelling at the rate of thirteen and a half knots an hour. The _Persia_ and the _Scotia_, sister-ships, were the last of the Atlantic side-wheelers. In 1862 the first screw-steamer was added to the Cunard fleet. This was the _China_, built by the Napiers of Glasgow, 326 feet long by 40-1/2 feet broad, and 27-1/2 feet deep, of 2600 tons, and with an average speed of about twelve knots.

Such was the type of Cunarder in the early days of the _Great Eastern_, whose dimensions have now been nearly reached. The _Campania_, however, was not built with a view to outshine that huge failure, but is the outcome of a wholly different compet.i.tion. The _Campania_ and the _Lucania_ represent the highest development of marine architecture and engineering skill, and are the product of long years of rivalry for the possession of the 'blue ribbon' of the transatlantic race.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The _Great Eastern_ and the _Persia_.]

The compet.i.tion is of ancient date, if we go back to the days when the American 'Collins' Company tried to run the Cunard Company off the waters; and during the half-century since the inauguration of steam service the Cunard Company have sometimes held and sometimes lost the highest place for speed. The period of steam-racing--the age of 'Atlantic greyhounds'--may be said to have begun in the year 1879, when the Cunard _Gallia_, the Guion _Arizona_, and the White Star _Britannic_ and _Germanic_ had all entered upon their famous careers. It is matter of history now how the _Arizona_--called the 'Fairfield Flyer,'

because she was built by Messrs John Elder & Company, of Fairfield, Glasgow--beat the record in an eastward run of seven days twelve and a half hours, and a westward run of seven days ten and three-quarter hours. To beat the _Arizona_, the Cunard Company built the _Servia_, of 8500 tons and 10,300 horse-power; but she in turn was beaten by another Fairfield Flyer, the _Alaska_, under the Guion flag. The race continued year by year, as vessels of increasing size and power were entered by the competing companies. While all the lines compete in swiftness, luxury, and efficiency, the keenest rivalry is now between the Cunard and the White Star companies. And just as the _Campania_ and _Lucania_ were built to eclipse the renowned _Teutonic_ and _Majestic_, so the owners of these boats prepared to surpa.s.s even the two Cunarders we describe.

Let us now see something of these marvels of marine architecture. They are sister-ships, both built on the Clyde by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, and both laid down almost simultaneously. They are almost identical in dimensions and appointments, and therefore we may confine our description to the _Campania_, which was the first of the twins to be ready for sea.

This largest vessel afloat does not mark any new departure in general type, as the _Great Eastern_ did in differing from all types of construction then familiar. In outward appearance, the _Campania_, as she lies upon the water, and as seen at a sufficient distance, is just like numbers of other vessels we have all seen. Nor does her immense size at first impress the observer, because of the beautiful proportions on which she is planned. Her lines are eminently what the nautical enthusiast calls 'sweet;' and in her own cla.s.s of naval art she is as perfect a specimen of architectural beauty as the finest of the grand old clippers which used to 'walk the waters as a thing of life.' The colossal size of St Peter's at Rome does not strike you as you enter, because of the exquisite proportions. And so with the _Campania_--you need to see an ordinary merchant-ship, or even a full-blown liner, alongside before you can realise how vast she is.

Yet she is only 60 feet shorter than the mammoth _Great Eastern_, and measures 620 feet in length, 65 feet 3 inches in breadth, and 43 feet in depth from the upper deck. Her tonnage is 12,000, while that of the _Great Eastern_ was 18,000; but then her horse-power is 30,000 as against the _Great Eastern's_ 7650!

This enormous development of engine-power is perhaps the most remarkable feature about these two new vessels. Each of them is fitted with two sets of the most powerful triple-expansion engines ever put together. A visit to the engine-room is a liberal education in the mechanical arts, and even to the eye of the uninitiated there is the predominant impression of perfect order in the bewildering arrangement of pipes, rods, cranks, levers, wheels, and cylinders. The two sets of engines are placed in two separate rooms on each side of a centre-line bulkhead fitted with water-tight doors for intercommunication. Each set has five inverted cylinders which have exactly the same stroke, and work on three cranks. Two of the cylinders are high-pressure, one is intermediate, and two are low-pressure. Besides the main engines, there are engines for reversing, for driving the centrifugal pumps for the condensers, for the electric light, for the refrigerating chambers, and for a number of other purposes--all perfect in appointment and finish. In fact, in these vast engine-rooms one is best able to realise not only the immense size and power of the vessel, but also the perfection to which human ingenuity has attained after generations of ceaseless toil--and yet it is only half a century since the _Britannia_ began the transatlantic race.

Each of the various engines has its own steam-supplier. The main engines are fed by twelve double-ended boilers, arranged in rows of six on each side of a water-tight bulkhead. The boilers are heated by ninety-six furnaces, and each set of six boilers has a funnel with the diameter of an ordinary railway tunnel. In the construction of these boilers some eight hundred tons of steel were required, the plates weighing four tons each, with a thickness of an inch and a half. From these mighty machines will be developed a power equal to that of 30,000 horses! Compare this with the _Great Eastern's_ 7650 horse-power, or even with the later 'greyhounds.' The greatest power developed by the two previous additions to the Cunard fleet, the _Etruria_ and _Umbria_, is about 14,000 horses, which is the utmost recorded by any single-screw engines. The _City of Paris_ has a power of 18,500, and the _Teutonic_ a power of 18,000 by twin-screw engines. The _Campania_, therefore, is upwards of half as much again more powerful than the largest, swiftest, and most powerful of her predecessors.

These engines of the _Campania_ work two long propeller-shafts, each carried through an aperture in the stern close to the centre-line, and fitted to a screw. Unlike other twin-screw vessels, the propellers and shafts are, as it were, carried within the hull, and not in separate structures. Abaft of the screws, the rudder is completely submerged, and is a great ma.s.s of steel-plating weighing about twenty-four tons.

With a straight stem, an elliptic stern, two huge funnels, and a couple of pole-masts--intended more for signalling purposes than for canvas--the _Campania_ looks thoroughly business-like, and has none of the over-elaborated get-up of the _Great Eastern_, with her double system of propulsion and small forest of masts. The bulwarks are close fore and aft; and from the upper deck rise two tiers of houses, the roofs of which form the promenade deck and the shade deck. In the structure of the hull and decks enormous strength has been given, with special protection at vital parts, as the vessel is built in compliance with the Admiralty requirements for armed cruisers. Below the line of vision are four other complete tiers of beams, plated with steel sheathed in wood, on which rest upper, main, lower, and orlop decks. The last is for cargo, refrigerating-chambers, stores, &c.--all the others are devoted to the accommodation of pa.s.sengers.

The _Campania_ is fitted to carry 460 first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, 280 second-cla.s.s, and 700 steerage pa.s.sengers--in all, 1440, besides a crew of 400. She has cargo-s.p.a.ce for 1600 tons, which seems a trifle in comparison with her size, but then it is to be remembered that the fuel consumption of those 96 furnaces is enormous, and requires the carrying of a very heavy cargo of coals for internal consumption.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The _Campania_.]

The accommodation for pa.s.sengers is probably the most perfect that has yet been provided on an ocean steamer, for here the experience of all previous developments has been utilised. The dining-room is an apartment 100 feet long and 64 feet broad, furnished in handsome dark old mahogany, to seat 430 persons. The upholstery is tastefully designed, and the fittings generally are elegant; but the peculiar feature is a splendid dome rising to a height of thirty-three feet from the floor to the upper deck, and designed to light both the dining-room and the drawing-room on the deck above it. The grand staircase which conducts to these apartments is of teak-wood; the drawing-room is in satin-wood relieved with cedar and painted frieze panels. The smoking-room on the promenade deck is as unlike a ship's cabin as can be imagined; it is, in fact, a reproduction of an old baronial hall of the Elizabethan age, with oaken furniture and carvings. The other public apartments, library, boudoir, &c., are all more remarkable for quiet taste and artistic effect than for the gorgeousness of gilded saloons affected on some lines, but the prevailing feeling is one of luxurious comfort. The staterooms for first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers occupy the main, upper, and promenade decks, and they are as much like real bedrooms as the old type of 'berths' are not. Besides the single bedrooms, there are suites of rooms for families or parties, finely appointed with ornamental woods, rich carpets, and with bra.s.s bedsteads instead of the old wooden bunks.

All the sleeping-rooms are as light, lofty, and well ventilated as the sleeping-rooms on the old liners were the reverse.

The first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers are placed amidships; the second-cla.s.s are placed aft; and the steerage, forward. The steerage accommodation is superior to anything yet provided in that cla.s.s; while the second-cla.s.s accommodation is quite up to the usual first-cla.s.s, with s.p.a.cious, beautifully furnished staterooms, a handsome dining-room in oak, an elegant drawing-room in satin-wood, and a cosy smoking-room. Indeed, some of the second-cla.s.s apartments look as if they were intended to be utilised for first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers in times of extra pressure.

These are details of interest to possible pa.s.sengers and to those who have already experienced the comforts and discomforts of the Atlantic voyage. But the great interest of the ship, of course, is in her immense size and enormous power. The navigating-bridge from which the officer in charge will direct operations, is no less than sixty feet above the water-level, and from there one obtains a survey unique of its kind. The towering height, the vast expanse of deck, the huge circ.u.mference of the funnels, the forest of ventilators indicative of the hives of industry below, the great lighthouse structures which take the place of the old angle-bedded side-lights--everything beneath you speaks of power and speed, of strength and security.

The following table shows at a glance how the _Campania_ compares with her largest predecessors in point of size and power:

Tonnage. Length Breadth Horsepower.

in feet. in feet.

Great Eastern 18,900 682 82 7,650 Britannic 5,000 455 46 5,500 Arizona 5,150 450 45 6,300 Servia 8,500 515 52 10,300 Alaska 6,400 500 50 10,500 City of Rome 8,000 545 52 11,890 Aurania 7,270 470 57 8,500 Oregon 7,375 500 54 7,375 America 5,528 432 51 7,354 Umbria 7,700 501 57 14,320 Etruria 7,800 520 57 14,500 City of Paris 10,500 560 63 18,500 Teutonic 9,860 582 57-1/2 18,000 Normannia ---- 520 57-1/4 16,350 Campania } Lucania } 12,950 620 65 30,000

As to speed, the record of course has been broken. In 1850 the average pa.s.sage of a Cunarder westward was thirteen days, and eastward twelve days sixteen hours; in 1890, the average was reduced to seven days fifteen hours twenty-three minutes, and seven days four hours and fifty-two minutes, respectively. The fastest individual pa.s.sages down to 1891 were made by the _Etruria_, westwards in six days one hour and forty-seven minutes; and by the _Umbria_, eastwards in six days three hours and seventeen minutes. But these were beaten by the _Teutonic_, which reduced the homeward record to five days and twenty-one hours; and by the _City of Paris_, which reduced the outward pa.s.sage to five days and sixteen hours. Roughly speaking, these new Cunarders are about ten times the size and forty times the power of the pioneers of the fleet, and the _Campania_ will run every twenty minutes almost as many miles as the _Britannia_ could laboriously make in an hour.

Is it possible that within the next fifty years we shall be able to make the voyage to New York in three days? The old _Britannia_ took fourteen days to Boston, and it was not until 1852 that the ten days' record to New York was broken by the 'Collins' Company. If, then, in forty years we reduced the record from ten to five, who can say that the limit of speed has yet been reached?

SAILING-SHIPS.

A modern sailing-ship replete with labour-saving appliances is a veritable triumph of the naval architect's art, and an excellent object lesson on man's power over the forces of nature. If Christopher Columbus could revisit our planet from the shades, he would doubtless be astonished by a critical comparison between the tiny wooden caravel with which he discovered a New World, and a leviathan four-masted steel sailing-ship, now navigated in comparative comfort to every possible port where freight is obtainable. Wooden cargo-carrying craft impelled by the unbought wind are surely diminishing in numbers; and in the near future it is not improbable that a stately sailing-ship will be as seldom seen on the waste of waters as a screw steamship was half a century ago. Even looking leisurely backward down the imposing vista of the last thirty years of the Victorian era, it will be readily perceived with what marvellous mastery iron and steel have supplanted, not only wood in the hulls, masts, and yards of sailing-ships, but also hemp in their rigging.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Clipper Sailing-ship of 1850-60.]

A radical revolution has been effected in the form, size, and construction of these cargo-carriers during such a relatively insignificant interval, and the end is not yet. The old-fashioned type of wooden merchantman remained practically invariable for more than a hundred years; but change is all-powerful at present, so that a vessel is almost of a bygone age before she shall have completed her maiden voyage. It would appear, however, that the limit of size has been reached. Ship-owning firms and shipbuilders will probably soon be compelled to keep the modern steel sailing-ship within more moderate dimensions. Vessels of exceptionally large carrying capacity are in demand owing to the fact that experience proves them to be the best kind for affording a fair return to the capital invested. Salvage appliances and docks do not keep pace with the requirements of such leviathans; so that underwriters evince an increasing dislike to big ships, and the premium for insurance rises accordingly, to compensate for extra risk.

Many mariners and some shipbuilders were at one time quick to express a p.r.o.nounced opinion that it was quite unnatural for an iron ship to remain afloat. Wood was made to swim, but iron to sink, said these sincere but mistaken admirers of the good old days. Their misgivings have proved to be without foundation in fact, for iron ships have ousted wooden craft almost utterly from the ocean-carrying traffic. Iron has also reached its meridian alt.i.tude, and steel is rapidly rising above the horizon of progress. The shipbuilding yards of Nova Scotia, Canada, the United States of America, and British Columbia, however, still launch wooden sailing-vessels, although in decreasing numbers, and, as a rule, of inconsiderable tonnage.

It seems scarcely credible that only as recently as 1870 there were not more than ten sailing-ships afloat of two thousand tons register and upwards under the red ensign of the British mercantile marine. To-day we have more than that number of splendid steel sailing-ships, each having a register tonnage in excess of three thousand. During the twelve months of 1892 there were turned out from one yard alone on the Clyde, that of Messrs Russell & Co., no fewer than thirteen huge sailing-vessels, varying in register tonnage from two thousand three hundred to three thousand five hundred! One of the largest wooden sailing-ships afloat in 1870 was the _British Empire_, of two thousand seven hundred tons register, which, under the command of Captain A. Pearson, was an ark of safety to the families of European residents in Bombay during the Indian Mutiny. She had been originally intended for a steamship, and this will account for her exceptional dimensions. The shipbuilding firm of A.

Sewall & Co., of Bath, Maine, U.S.A., in 1889 built the _Rappahannock_, of 3054 tons register; in 1890, the _Shenandoah_, 3258 tons; in 1891, the _Susquehanna_, 2629 tons; and in 1892, the _Roanoke_, of 3400 tons register.

Several cities claim to be the birthplace of Homer, and there exists similar rivalry with respect to the first iron ship. This at least is certain, that the first iron vessel cla.s.sed by Lloyd's was the British barque _Ironsides_, in 1838. She was but 271 tons register. The Clyde stands _facile princeps_ in this most important branch of industry.

Vessels built on the banks of that river have rendered a praiseworthy account of themselves on every sea and under every flag. No other country, save ourselves, launched any iron or steel ships of 2000 tons register or above, but preferred to obtain them from our shipbuilding yards. The so-called protection of native industry principle prevailing in America precludes ship-owners over there from taking advantage directly of the cheapest market. Several of the large sailers, however, built on the Clyde for citizens of the United States are therefore necessarily sailed under the British, Hawaiian, or some flag other than that of the country to which they actually belong.

The number of seamen carried per one hundred tons in the modern four-masted sailing-ship is cut down to the uttermost limit consistent with safety; and, as a consequence, dismasting and tedious pa.s.sages are not infrequent. The _Hawaiian Isles_, 2097 tons register, a United States ship under a foreign flag, bound to California with a cargo of coal, found it impossible to weather Cape Horn by reason of violent westerly gales. She was turned round, ran along the lone Southern Ocean, before the 'brave west winds' so admirably described by Maury, and eventually reached her destination by the route leading south of Australia. She was one hundred and eighty-nine days on the pa.s.sage, and no fewer than sixty guineas per cent. had been freely paid for her re-insurance. A similar ship, the _John Ena_, carrying a substantial cargo of 4222 tons of coal from Barry to San Francisco, also encountered bad weather, made a long pa.s.sage, and twenty guineas per cent. was paid on her for re-insurance. Another new ship, the _Achnashie_, 2476 tons register, got into still more serious difficulty under like circ.u.mstances. She had to put back to Cape Town, damaged and leaky, after attempting in vain to contend against the bitter blast off Cape Horn. There, her cargo was discharged, and she went into dry-dock for the absolutely necessary repairs. The _Austrasia_, 2718 tons register, was almost totally dismasted near the island of Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlantic, on her maiden pa.s.sage, while bound from Liverpool to Calcutta with a cargo of salt. By dint of sterling seamanship she was brought to Rio Janeiro in safety, returned to Liverpool under improvised masts, discharged her cargo, refitted, took in quite a different cargo at London, and sailed for California. The _Somali_, 3537 tons register, the largest sailing-ship launched in 1892, was dismasted in the China Sea. Everything above the lower masts had to be made for her on the Clyde; yet, within fifteen days of the order being received by Messrs Russell & Co., the spars and gear were completed and shipped for pa.s.sage to the _Somali_ at Hong-kong. Underwriters suffer severely with such ships.

One of the largest sailing-ships afloat is the French five-master, _La France_, launched in 1890 on the Clyde, and owned by Messrs A. D. Bordes et Fils, who possess a large fleet of sailing-vessels. In 1891 she came from Iquique to Dunkirk in one hundred and five days with 6000 tons of nitrate; yet she was stopped on the Tyne when proceeding to sea with 5500 tons of coal, and compelled to take out 500 tons on the ground that she was overladen. There is not a single five-masted sailing-ship under the British flag. The United States has two five-masters, the _Louis_ of 830 tons, and the _Gov. Ames_ of 1778 tons, both fore-and-aft schooners, a rig peculiar to the American coast. Ships having five masts can be counted on the fingers of one hand; but, strange to say, the steamship _Coptic_, of the Shaw, Savill, & Albion Co., on her way to New Zealand, in December 1890, pa.s.sed the _Gov. Ames_ in fourteen degrees south, thirty-four degrees west, bound for California; and two days later, in six degrees south, thirty-one degrees west, the French five-master, _La France_, bound south. Pa.s.sengers and crew of the _Coptic_ might travel over many a weary league of sea, and never again be afforded two such excellent object lessons in the growth of sailing-ships in quick succession.

Some large sailing-ships experience a decided difficulty in obtaining freights that will repay expenses, even ignoring a margin for profit, and we are reluctantly compelled to confess that the days of sailing-ships are almost numbered. The cry for huge sailers is an evidence that steam is determining the dimensions of the most modern cargo-carriers under sail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _La France._]