This table shows another thing very conclusively, that large ships running the same number of miles per hour, run cheaper and transport freight more cheaply than smaller vessels. It presupposes, however, that they go full both ways. The engine power and general outlay do not increase as rapidly as the tonnage of the vessel and hercapacity for carrying. While a ship 2,500 tons at 12 miles per hour on a passage of 3,250 miles would make the cost per ton for the transportation of freight $22.75, one of 20,000 tons, under the same conditions would reduce it to $9 per ton. Yet it is hardly probable that we shall ever profitably employ steamers of over 10,000 tons tonnage in the passenger, mail, and freight business.
Again, a ship of 2,500 at 12 miles, running 6,500 miles could not transport cargo at less than $115; one of 5,000 tons would transport it at $52; one of 10,000 tons would transport it at $33 per ton; and one of 20,000 tons burthen, as for instance the "Leviathan," would transport it at $24 per ton. And while none of the three first named sizes of vessels would transport it 12,500 miles, the one of 20,000 tons, running 12 miles per hour, would transport it at $80 per ton; and running 14 miles per hours, at $430 per ton. Two things must, however, not be forgotten in this; that the ship to do this must always run entirely full and have no waste room; and that these prices are comparisons between different steamers, and not with sailing vessels, which, running much more slowly and with but little expense, transport the freight far more cheaply.
The following table will set forth very clearly in a summary view, the Time, Horse-power, Coal, and Cargo for a steamer of good average quality running on passages of 1,000 miles, 2,000 miles, and 3,000 miles, and at a speed varying from 6 to 18 miles per hour. It will be observed that a steamer of 3,000 tons can not take power and coal enough to run on a 2,000 miles passage above 17 knots per hour, and that one of 3,000 tons also can not run on a 3,000 miles passage at a speed above 16 knots per hour. Observe the small quantity of cargo and the large quantity of coal for a steamer of 3,000 tons on a 3,000 miles passage at 16 miles per hour.
Calculated for the mean Displacement of 3,000 Tons.
I will close this long chapter, in which I have endeavored to give a clear, comprehensible, and faithful idea of the cost of running ocean mail, freight, and passenger steamers, by an extract from that very able and faithful work, "Steamship Capability." As a summing up of the various laws and facts concerning the consumption of fuel, weight and power of engines, speed of ships, and their capacity to do business, Mr. Atherton says, page 55: "Now suppose, for example, that the passage be 1,000 miles, and that, for brevity, we confine our remarks to the engine department only; which, indeed, will be the department of expense, chiefly affected by variations in the rate of speed. It appears that the vessel of 5,000 tons' mean displacement, iffitted to run at the speed ofEIGHT NAUTICAL MILESper hour, will require 172 H.P., and a cargo of 2,738 tons will be conveyed 1,000 miles in five days five hours; being equivalent to one day's employment of33/100H.P.per tonof goods.
"If fitted to run atTEN NAUTICAL MILESan hour, the vessel will require 336 H.P., the cargo will be reduced to 2,524 tons, and the time to four days four hours; being equivalent to one day's employment of55/100H.P.per tonof goods nearly.
"If fitted to run atTWELVE NAUTICAL MILESan hour, the vessel will require 581 H.P., the cargo will be reduced to 2,217 tons, and the time to three days eleven hours; being equivalent to one day's employment of91/100H.P.per tonof goods.
"If fitted to run atFOURTEEN MILESan hour, the vessel will require 923 H.P., the cargo will be reduced to 1,802 tons, and the time to two days twenty-three hours; being equivalent to one day's employment of 152/100H.P.per tonof goods.
"If fitted to run atSIXTEEN MILESper hour, the vessel will require 1,377 H.P., the cargo will be reduced to 1,264 tons, and the time to two days fourteen hours; being equivalent to one day's employment of 286/100H.P.per tonof goods.
"If fitted to run atEIGHTEEN MILESper hour, the vessel will require 1,961 H.P., the cargo will be reduced to 585 tons, and the time to two days eight hours; being equivalent to one day's employment of 775/100H.P.,per tonof goods.
"And if fitted to run atTWENTY MILESper hour, there will be no displacement available for mercantile cargo.
"Assuming, now, that theCOSTper ton of goods will be in proportion to the amount of power and tonnage employed to do the work, it appears that the costper tonof goodsof performing this passage of 1,000 miles, at the respective speeds of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 miles, will be proportional to the numbers—33/100,55/100,91/100, 152/100, 286/100, and 775/100, which are proportional to the numbers 33, 55, 91, 152, 286, and 775, or nearly as 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, and 23.
"Hence it appears, that in the case of theONE THOUSAND MILESpassage above referred to, the cost of freightper ton of goodsatTEN MILESper hour, will require to be nearly thedoubleof the rate atEIGHT MILESper hour.
"The cost per ton atTWELVE MILESper hour will require to bethree timesthe rate atEIGHT MILES.
"The cost per ton atFOURTEEN MILESper hour will require to befive timesthe rate atEIGHT MILES.
"The cost per ton atSIXTEEN MILESper hour will require to benine timesthe rate atEIGHT MILES.
"The cost per ton atEIGHTEEN MILESper hour will require to betwenty-three timesthe rate atEIGHT MILES.
"And atTWENTY MILESper hour there will beno displacementavailable for mercantile cargo.
"By applying the same process of calculation to a ship of 5,000 tons' mean displacement, making a passage ofTHREE THOUSAND MILES, we shall find that, atTEN MILESan hour, the cost of freight per ton will require to be double the rate of freight atEIGHT MILES.
"The cost per ton atTWELVE MILESwill require to be three times the rate atEIGHT MILES.
"The cost per ton atFOURTEEN MILESwill require to be six times the rate atEIGHT MILES.
"The cost per ton atSIXTEEN MILESwill require to be twenty times the rate atEIGHT MILES.
"And atEIGHTEEN MILESper hour there will beno displacementavailable for mercantile cargo.
"Finally, by applying the same process of calculation to a ship of 5,000 tons' mean displacement on a passage of 6,000 miles, it will be found that the cost of freight perton atTEN MILESper hour will require to bedoublethe rate atEIGHT MILES.
"The cost per ton atTWELVE MILESper hour will require to be aboutfive timesthe rate atEIGHT MILES.
"The cost per ton atFOURTEEN MILESper hour will be aboutsixteen timesthe rate atEIGHT MILES.
"And atSIXTEEN MILESper hour there will beno displacementavailable for mercantile cargo.
"Hence, it appears, that for voyages of 1,000 miles and upwards, without re-coaling, the speed of ten nautical miles per hour would involve aboutdoublethe costper tonof eight miles, and may, therefore, be regarded as the extreme limit that can be generally entertained for the mercantile purpose of goods' conveyance; and that the attainment on long passages of a higher rate of speed than ten miles (though admissibly practicable) would involve obligations altogether of an exceptional character, such as the special service of dispatches, mails, passengers, specie, and the most valuable description of goods can only meet."
INCREASE OF BRITISH MAIL SERVICE: LAST NEW LINE AT $925,000 PER YEAR: THE SYSTEM NOT BECOMING SELF-SUPPORTING: CONTRACT RENEWALS AT SAME OR HIGHER PRICES: PRICE OF FUEL AND WAGES INCREASED FASTER THAN ENGINE IMPROVEMENTS: LARGE SHIPS RUN PROPORTIONALLY CHEAPER THAN SMALL: AN EXAMPLE, WITH THE FIGURES: THE STEAMER "LEVIATHAN," 27,000 TONS: STEAMERS OF THIS CLASS WILL NOT PAY: SHE CAN NOT TRANSPORT FREIGHT TO AUSTRALIA: REASONS FOR THE SAME: MOTION HER NORMAL CONDITION: MUST NOT BE MADE A DOCK: DELIVERY OF FREIGHTS: MAMMOTH STEAMERS TO BRAZIL: LARGE CLIPPERS LIE IDLE: NOT EVEN THIS LARGE CLASS OF STEAMERS CAN LIVE ON THEIR OWN RECEIPTS: EFFICIENT MAIL STEAMERS CARRY BUT LITTLE EXCEPT PASSENGERS: SOME HEAVY EXTRA EXPENSES IN REGULAR MAIL LINES: PACIFIC MAIL COMPANY'S LARGE EXTRA FLEET, AND ITS EFFECTS: THE IMMENSE ACCOUNT OF ITEMS AND EXTRAS: A PARTIAL LIST: THE HAVRE AND COLLINS DOCKS: GREAT EXPENSE OF FEEDING PASSENGERS: VIEWS OF MURRAY AND ATHERTON ON THE COST OF RUNNING STEAMERS, AND THE NECESSITY OF THE PRESENT MAIL SERVICE.
INCREASE OF BRITISH MAIL SERVICE: LAST NEW LINE AT $925,000 PER YEAR: THE SYSTEM NOT BECOMING SELF-SUPPORTING: CONTRACT RENEWALS AT SAME OR HIGHER PRICES: PRICE OF FUEL AND WAGES INCREASED FASTER THAN ENGINE IMPROVEMENTS: LARGE SHIPS RUN PROPORTIONALLY CHEAPER THAN SMALL: AN EXAMPLE, WITH THE FIGURES: THE STEAMER "LEVIATHAN," 27,000 TONS: STEAMERS OF THIS CLASS WILL NOT PAY: SHE CAN NOT TRANSPORT FREIGHT TO AUSTRALIA: REASONS FOR THE SAME: MOTION HER NORMAL CONDITION: MUST NOT BE MADE A DOCK: DELIVERY OF FREIGHTS: MAMMOTH STEAMERS TO BRAZIL: LARGE CLIPPERS LIE IDLE: NOT EVEN THIS LARGE CLASS OF STEAMERS CAN LIVE ON THEIR OWN RECEIPTS: EFFICIENT MAIL STEAMERS CARRY BUT LITTLE EXCEPT PASSENGERS: SOME HEAVY EXTRA EXPENSES IN REGULAR MAIL LINES: PACIFIC MAIL COMPANY'S LARGE EXTRA FLEET, AND ITS EFFECTS: THE IMMENSE ACCOUNT OF ITEMS AND EXTRAS: A PARTIAL LIST: THE HAVRE AND COLLINS DOCKS: GREAT EXPENSE OF FEEDING PASSENGERS: VIEWS OF MURRAY AND ATHERTON ON THE COST OF RUNNING STEAMERS, AND THE NECESSITY OF THE PRESENT MAIL SERVICE.
From the foregoingSectionit is evident that the cost of running ocean steamers is enormous, and that in the chief element of expenditure it increases as the cube of the velocity. This, although true, is certainly a startling ratio of increase, and calculated to arouse attention to the difficulties of postal marine navigation. Seeing that ocean speed is attainable at so high a cost, we naturally concludethat fast mail steamers can not live on their own receipts upon the ocean.
Since Great Britain established her first ocean steam mail in 1833, she has gone on rapidly increasing the same facilities, until her noble lines of communication now extend to every land and compass every sea. The last great contract which she conceded was last year, to the "European and Australian Company," for carrying the mails on a second line from SouthamptonviaSuez to Sydney, in Australia, at £185,000, or $925,000 per year. And although her expenditures for this service have gradually gone up to above five millions of dollars per annum, she continues the service as a necessity to her commerce, and a branch of facilities and accommodations with which the people of the Kingdom will not dispense. The British Government set out with the determination to have the advantages of the system, whether it would pay or not. They believed that the system would eventually become self-supporting, by reason of the many important improvements then proposed in the steam-engine, and they have ever since professed to believe the same thing. But their experience points quite the other way; and while the service is daily becoming more important to them in every sense, it is also becoming year by year more expensive.
Contracts which the Admiralty made with several large and prominent companies in 1838 they renewed at the same or increased subsidies, after twelve years' operations, in 1850, for another term of twelve years. And so far from those companies with their many ships on hand being able to undertake the service for less, they demanded more in almost every case, and received it from the government. The improvements which they anticipated in the marine engine were more than counterbalanced by the rise in the price of fuel and wages all over the kingdom and the world. In fact, those improvements have been very fewand very small. It still takes nearly as much coal to evaporate a pound of water as it then did; and the improvements which have been made were generally patents, and costly in the prime cost of construction to a degree almost preclusive of increased benefits to the general service. At any rate, the latest steam adaptations and improvements have proven unequal to the end proposed, and the cost of the ocean service is now far heavier than it ever has been before, simply because of the greater speed required by the public for the mails and passage.
It had long been hoped that this difficulty of increasing cost in running ocean steamers might finally be overcome by another means; and the whole available engineering and ship-building talent of Great Britain and the United States has been directed not entirely to the engine department, but to the hulls and to the production of a large class of ships, which are admissibly cheaper in proportion to size and expense of running when compared with smaller vessels, if they are always employed and have full freights and passage. It is well established that large steamers run proportionally cheaper than small ones. (SeeTable III., page 76.) This arises from the important fact that the length increases far more rapidly than the breadth and depth. Consequently the tonnage of the vessel increases much faster than the resistance. In passing through the water the vessel cuts out a canal as large as the largest part of its body, which is at the middle of the ship. If the vessel be here cut in two, the width and depth, or the beam and hold being multiplied together will give the square contents of the midship section. Now, when a vessel is doubled in all of its dimensions, this midship section and consequently the size of the canal which it cuts in the water, does not increase as rapidly as the solid contents of the whole ship, and consequently, as the tonnage. Hence, the resistance to the vessel in passingthrough the water does not increase so rapidly as the tonnage which the vessel will carry.
To make this clearer, let us suppose a vessel of good proportion, whose length is seven times the beam, or 280 ft. long, 40 ft. wide, and 30 feet deep. The midship section will be 40 × 30 = 1,200 square feet: the solid contents will be 40 × 30 × 280 = 336,000 solid feet. Again, let us double these dimensions, and the ship will be 80 ft. wide, 60 ft. deep, and 560 feet long. The midship section will be 80 × 60 = 4,800 square feet: the solid contents will be 80 × 60 × 560 = 2,688,000 solid feet. Now, comparing the midship sections, and also the said contents in each case we have,
Midship Section,4,800= 4 to 1. Increase as the squares:Midship Section,1,200Solid Contents,2,688,000= 8 to 1. Increase as the cubes.Solid Contents,336,000
Thus, the midship resistance has increased as four to one, or as the square, while the solid contents, representing the tonnage, have increased as eight to one, or as the cube. It is evident that the ship has but four times the mid-section resistance, while she has eight times the carrying capacity. Therefore the engine power, and the coal and weight necessary to propel a ship of twice the lineal dimensions, or eight times the capacity, would have to be only four times that of the smaller vessel, speaking in general terms; and as a consequence, the price of freight, considering the vessels to run at equal speed, would be but half as much in the larger as in the smaller vessel.
The attempt has been made to seize the evident advantages thus offered by increasing the size of the hull, until our clippers now reach an enormous size, and our steamers are stopping but little short of 30,000 tons. The splendidsteamer "Leviathan" was built on this idea, and must prove a splendid triumph in comparative cheapness if she can only get business so as to run full, and keep herself constantly employed in her legitimate business, running. But it is hardly possible that she should be always filled with either freight or passengers. Some of our large clipper ships have experienced this difficulty. The time necessary to load and unload is too great for short routes, although they are well calculated for long passages. If one of these large steamers fail to get plenty of business the losses become exceedingly severe. The prime cost is immense; the interest on the capital and the insurance are very large; and the current expenses are even beyond those necessary for the government of some cities. These hazards all taken together more than neutralize the benefits which arise from extra size and extra proportional cheapness; so that notwithstanding all of the hopes which some have entertained for the cheapening of transport in this way, they are probably doomed to disappointment in the end; and ocean steaming continues as expensive as ever, and is growing even more expensive than it has ever been known since its first introduction. (See Coal Tables,pp. 71and75.)
It is clear that, notwithstanding all of the advantages to be gained from increased size, steamers can not support themselves upon the ocean. Let us examine further the case of such a ship as the "Leviathan." I can not see that there is any normal trade in which she can run successfully. She may transport 6,000 tons of measurement goods to Australia; but it will be at the expense of fourteen to sixteen thousand tons of coals if the passage is made in fair time. If not, sailing vessels will subserve all purposes except travel quite as well. And certainly there is no class of freight for Australia or any other portion of the world, which will pay such an enormous coal-bill, and so many other expenses, and the interest and insurance on threeand a half to four millions of dollars, just to save a few days in so long a voyage. And if the steamer is to do a freighting as well as passenger business, then a long voyage is essential to her.
Running is the legitimate business of a steamer. Her costly engines are put in her for locomotion. Her large corps of engineers, firemen, and coal-passers, are employed for running her, and are of no use when she is lying still, although necessarily on full pay. Her condition is abnormal and unnatural every day that she is lying at the docks, and taking or discharging freight; and hence, every day that she is thus employed she is not performing her proper functions. A sailing ship can better afford to lie still for weeks and await a freight, or slowly receive or discharge cargo; as she must pay only the interest on her investment, her dockage, the captain, and watchmen, and perhaps her depreciation. The prime investment is much less. She has no costly engines and boilers. So are her current expenses. She has none of the costlyemployéesthat I have named, and who can never leave a steamer for a day. But eternal motion, flush freights, flush business, good prices, and constant employment, are everywhere essential to the steamer.
Suppose the "Leviathan" steamer running between Liverpool and New-York. She would be occupied ten days at least in receiving her freight, ten days in running and making port or docks, and ten days in discharging. Then, she would be employed only one third of her time in the business for which she was constructed, running; while during two thirds of it she would be acting simply as a pier or dock, over which freight would be handled. Now, with her costly engines, and costly and necessarily idleemployées, she can not afford to be a dock; neither can she afford to lie still so long. Nor can she on such conditions get the freight necessary to her support. Thecommunity on neither side of the water would wish fifteen thousand tons of any class of freights which she could transport dumped down upon the docks at one time. They wish it to arrive a little and a little every day, as it is wanted, just enough to supply the market; and will not lie out of the money which they pay for it, and have it nearly a month in market before they need it, just to have it come on the "Leviathan." It must come along in small lots, just as they need it, and it must be shipped the day that it is bought, and delivered as soon as the ship is in, without being the last lot of fifteen thousand tons, and without keeping the owners so long out of their money. Suppose that A. puts the first lot of freight in at London: he will be the last to receive, it in New-York. A smaller steamer taking another lot two days after, will deliver it before the large ship gets half way over. Or, again, the small steamer may leave London with it when the large steamer has nearly arrived at New-York, and deliver the lot here to the owner in advance. Beside not wishing so large a lot at once, they do not wish it all in one place. The double advantage of a great number of small vessels is, that they bring cargo along as it is wanted, and at the same time distribute it at all of the hundreds of large and small ports, without first delivering it at some great mammoth terminus, and then reshipping and distributing it to its final destination.
A gentleman, who is a prominent statesman, recently seriously advised me not to think of establishing a line of mail steamers between the United States and Brazil, for the accommodation of the hundreds of sailing vessels engaged in that trade, but to get up a mammoth company and run five or six thirty thousand ton steamers, like the Leviathan, between Norfolk and Rio de Janeiro. He said that the increased size of the steamer would enable me to carry freight cheaper than sailing vessels. The reasoning was neithervery clear nor convincing to me on behalf of the mysterious capacities which he attributed to large steamers. I suggested that, in the first place, there was no cargo passing either way between the United States and Brazil which could afford to pay steam transportation under any circumstances; that so large a cargo could never be obtained at once in Rio de Janeiro or elsewhere; that the merchants of this country did not wish it all landed at one place; that it would cost as much to remove it from Norfolk to the place of consumption, as it would from Rio de Janeiro to its final destination; that they did not wish it delivered all at once, but in small lots at a time, and distributed where it was needed; and that, even if it were at all practicable, which no business man could for a moment believe, the people would not be willing to have a fruitful field of industry in shipping occupied by some great overgrown company, with a great coffee monopoly, which would surely follow. Too much has been expected of large ships. The clipper "Great Republic" is not freighted half of her time. The "Leviathan" can not pay in freighting unless she runs to Australia and the East-Indies, and runs slowly, on very little coal. She may do very well with a voluntary cargo, which will load and unload itself in a hurry, such as a cargo of emigrants, and not steaming at too a high a speed. But it would require a dozen steamers as tenders to bring these emigrants from Ireland, Bremen, Havre, Hamburgh, Amsterdam, and other European cities, to her central dépôt in England. She would, however, become a most useful if not indispensable transport vessel for the British Government.
If the large class of steamers can not live on their own receipts, much less can the small. An adequate speed for the mails leaves no available space for cargo. The ship may carry two or three hundred tons of freight; but it pays perhaps but little more than the handling and theextra coal necessary to transport its extra weight. As a general thing, it may be safely said that when a vessel is well adapted to the mails and passengers she is filled with her own power, that is, with heavy engines, large boilers, and a large quantity of fuel, as also with her provisions and baggage. We have already seen how the size and weight of engines and boilers must increase, as well as the bulk and cost of the fuel, to gain a little speed. But it is not generally known how large a quantity of consumable stores and baggage go in a well-supported mail packet. The greater the postal efficiency of a steamer the less is it able to carry freight; and the time will doubtless soon come when the fast mail packets will take nothing except a few express packages. The Persia now takes scarcely any freight, and the Vanderbilt can not think of doing it when she makes fast trips. It is very probable that the whole system of the ocean will be materially changed; and that while clippers and slow propellers carry the fine freights, fast vessels filled with their own power will carry the mails and passengers. And in doing this, they can not, of course, support themselves; neither will they conflict with private enterprise in freight transport. It is now the case to a large extent on most of our American lines.
While the ocean mail steamer must be fast and costly, for the better acceleration of correspondence and the accommodation of passengers, she must also go at the appointed hour, whether she is repaired or not, and wholly irrespective of her freight and passenger list. There must be no delays for a lot of freight, or for a company of fifty passengers who have been delayed by the train. She has the mails, and must go at the hour appointed, whatever it may cost the company, and however large a lot of costly stores may have to be thrown away. This punctuality, while it is the means of securing small lots of freight, prevents also the accommodation of the ship's day of sailing to arrangementswhich might otherwise be profitable. This punctuality in sailing always necessitates large extra expense in repairs. It frequently happens that companies of men work through the nights and on Sundays; getting much increased prices for such untimely labor, and being far less efficient in the night than in the day. If the steamer has had a long passage from whatever causes, she discharges whatever she has and takes in her coal in a hurried and costly way, frequently at fifty per cent. advance on the cost necessary for it if she had ample time. The only means of avoiding these exigencies is by having spare ships, which cost as much as any others, but which add nothing whatsoever to the company's income. It may be safe to say that in every mail company it is necessary to have one spare, and consequently unproductive, ship for every three engaged in active service. This thirty-three per cent. additional outlay would not be necessary except on a mail line, where punctuality was positively demanded. Yet, it is one of the heavy items of expense to be incurred by every company carrying the mails, and with which they can not in any wise dispense, however well their ships may be built. The "Pacific Mail Steamship Company" in running their semi-monthly line from Panama to California and Oregon, keep constantly at their docks eight unemployed steamers and one tow-boat, ready for all exigencies and accidents, and could keep their mails going if nearly their whole moving fleet should be sunk at once. No wonder that they have never missed a single trip, or lost a single passenger by marine accident since they first started in 1850. But there is another class of costs in running ocean steamers, which amount to large sums in the aggregate, and of which the people are generally wholly ignorant. I allude to the items, and what may be called "odds and ends." It is easily imaginable that a company has to pay only the bills for wages, for fuel, and for provisions, andthat then the cash-drawer may be locked for the voyage. Indeed, it is difficult for those accustomed to the marine steam service to sit down and enumerate by memory in one day the thousand little treasury leaks, the many wastages, the formidable bill of extras, and the items which are necessary to keep every thing in its place, and to pay every body for what he does. The oil-bill of a large steamer would be astonishing to a novice, until he saw the urns and oil-cans which cling to every journal, and jet a constant lubricating stream. The tools employed about a steamer are legion in number, and cost cash. We hear a couple of cannon fired two or three times as we enter and leave port, or pass a steamer upon the ocean, and consider it all very fine and inspiring; but we do not reflect that the guns cost money, and that pound after pound of powder is not given to the company by the Government or the public. The steamer carries many fine flags and signals, which cost cash. An anchor with the chain is lost; another costs cash. Heavy weather may be on, and it takes some hours to get into the dock. The extra coal and the tow-boat cost cash. The wheel-house is torn to pieces against the corner of the pier, and the bulwarks are carried away by heavy seas; but no one will repair the damage for any thing short of cash. A large number of lights are by law required to be kept burning on the wheel-houses and in the rigging all night; but no one reflects that it took money first to purchase them, and a constant outlay to keep them trimmed and burning. People suppose that the captain, or steward, or some body else can take a match and set the lamp off, and have it burn very nicely; but there are only a few who know that it takes one man all of his time to clean, fill, adjust, light, and keep these lamps going, as well as have them extinguished at the proper time.
I saw to-day a case in point as regards accidental expenses. The splendid steamship Adriatic sailed at 12.The wind was very high from the south, and almost blowing a gale. She was lying on the southern side of the dock, while the Atlantic was lying with her stern at the end of the dock, near where the Adriatic had to pass in going out. At the moment of starting, three strong tow-boats were attached to her bow, and endeavored as she went out to draw her head against the wind, down stream. But they proved insufficient to the task. The vessel crushed down the corner of the dock, ran into the Atlantic, and carried away her stern bulwarks, crushed one of her own large and costly iron life-boats, and damaged one of her wheel-houses. Now, who of the two hundred thousand spectators that lined the docks, would pay the two thousand dollars for the life-boat, a thousand for repairing the dock and vessels, and the bill for the three tug-boats for two hours each?
Moreover, we see a pilot get on the steamer at New-York, another at Southampton, and a third at Havre; but we seldom reflect that the steamer has to pay a large price to each one of them, both going and coming. Take the coasting steamers, running between New-York and Savannah, or Charleston. It appears singular that the New-York pilot goes all the way to Savannah, that the Savannah pilot comes all the way to New-York, and that the steamer pays for both of these men all the time, and feeds them on board all of the time. Yet it is so. Such is the law; and it amounts to a good many thousands during the year. And all this, the company must pay, as a part of those items which take cash, but for which the company never gets any credit from the public or the Government. Whenever a little accident occurs to the steamer, it must be towed a few miles at a high price by a tug-boat. Whenever the Government or friends and visitors come on board, they expect to be liberally entertained; yet the company must pay for it, or be considered mean and unworthy of the Government's patronage. Each ship must have an experienced surgeon, whose wages must be paid like those of other persons employed, and an apothecary's room and outfit. The ship must be painted and varnished, and overhauled at every trip; the upholstering and furnishing must be often renewed; stolen articles must be replaced; and the breakages of table-wares constantly renewed. All of this costs cash.
The steamer also has to pay light dues and port charges wherever she goes. Many of these are exorbitant and unreasonable. In Havre the "Fulton" and "Arago" must pay nearly twenty-four hundred dollars each on every departure, or they will not be permitted to leave the docks. This is no small item for each steamer on every passage that she makes. At New-York she pays wharfage again. It is not so high, but it is a large item, and requires the cash. Again, there is the great shore establishment which every steam company must maintain. Large docks, and warehouses, and coaling arrangements, staging, watchmen, porters, and messengers, and a shore-captain equal to those on board, must all be maintained. The Havre Company pays to the city $4,000 per year for its dock, $1,200 for its annual repairs, and also for sheds, fixtures, etc., extra. They keep also two watchmen at $40 each per month, and other persons in the dock service. The Collins Company have a necessarily very costly dock both in New-York and Liverpool. That in New-York would rent for $15,000 per annum. The one in Liverpool is far more costly. On each they keep a large number of men, with watchmen, gatekeepers, runners, porters, and clerks, and always keep an office open. Beside this, is the whole paraphernalia of the office of the company. There must be offices, clerks, bookkeepers, porters, runners, etc.; a president, treasurer, and secretary; an attorney, agents, and agencies; and newspaper advertising, and a hundred little things which no man can mention. I do not pretend to be able to give anadequate conception of the innumerable items which so swell the large actual working expenses of regularly running steamers. Even the charities of a decently managed company are large. Firemen and engineers become disabled and must be supported; or they are killed in the service of the ship, leaving families which no decent company can disregard. The amount which the West-India Royal Mail Company pays in this way, and which our noble American lines advance to the deserving, are beyond all conception of the mere theorist.
There is another source of loss which prevents, mail packets especially, from paying their expenses on their freight and passenger earnings. The table on all of our steamships has become exceedingly expensive, as it has in our hotels. Perhaps there is more necessity for it on steamers than in the hotels, as passengers are generally sea-sick, and need every delicacy of life to keep them up. The supplies which our fine mail packets carry for this purpose are of almost incredible extent and costliness. No vegetable, fruit, game, or other rarity that can be kept fifteen days in large masses of ice, is neglected; so that the table of every steamer is necessarily both luxurious and expensive. Indeed, it has become so much so, and the price of passage fare has been reduced so low on all of the prominent lines, that as a general rule the steamers are not now making much clear money on their passengers. The expense of keeping passengers was not half so great six years ago, as it is now; and there appears to be no safe means of permanent retrenchment. Nothing has been said of Insurance. This is a most costly item. The Havre Company pay on their two ships, which are worth about $900,000, nine and a half per cent. per annum; and Mr. Collins pays on his three ships, which are worth about $2,200,000, nine per cent. per annum. On the Havre steamers this amounts to $85,500 per year, which is nearlyas much as the mail pay; and on the Collins, to $198,000 per annum. And these are among what we call the items of mail steamship expenditure. I do not know the sums paid by the United States Mail, or by the Pacific Mail Companies.
I will here give the views of Messrs. Murray and Atherton on the cost of steam, as they replied to letters of inquiry, which I addressed them Sept. 14, 1857. Mr. Murray says in answer to
Query 2. "It is certainly my impression that ocean steamers of sufficient speed to carry the mails with any thing like regularity, will not pay upon any route with which I am acquainted, without assistance from Government."
Query 5: Can Parliament do better in economy than in her present mail contracts, all things considered? Mr. Murray replies:
"I do not see how Parliament can avoid paying the large subsidies she does for the mail contracts under present circumstances."
Query 4: Is the steamship stock of Great Britain, subsidized or unsubsidized, paying stock, and is there much disposition among capitalists to invest, even in the stock of subsidized companies? He replies:
"I do not think the steamship stock of Great Britain to be in a very nourishing condition: in fact, I know of only one company (the Peninsular and Oriental) in which I should like to invest money."
Mr. Atherton replies to a query regarding the cost of running steamers as follows:
"As to whether the effective performance of high speed mail service is compatible with ordinary mercantile service without government subsidy, I am of opinion that the mutual relation of Speed and Cost in connection with long sea-voyages has never yet been duly appreciated by owners,managers, or agents in charge of steam shipping affairs. An acceleration of steaming speed involves an increase of cost expenses, and a decrease of mercantile earnings, as dependent onfreight per ton weightfar beyond what is generally supposed."
He further says in reply to Query 9, which is as follows:
Do you know of any disposition in the Government to cut down the ocean mail service, as an unproductive expenditure? He says:
"It is impossible to estimate the national value of an effective mail service throughout the whole globe; the breaking of one link, though apparently of trivial consequence, impairs the whole system. I can not imagine that there is any disposition to impair the completeness of the mail system."
From the foregoing considerations it is palpable that fast ocean steamers can not live on their own receipts. And the same will in most cases hold true of freighting and other steamers of all classes, which depend entirely on steam as their agent of locomotion. Propellers will hardly form an exception to this rule. If the power and the passengers fill the hull, if the coal bill and other expenses increase as rapidly as indicated for mail packets, if engineering improvements do not advance as rapidly as the price of coals, if larger and more cheaply running ships can not get an adequate support in business, if there are the many leakages and expenses indicated, and if all of the expenses of running steamers are continually increasing from year to year rather than diminishing, then we may never expect to see the mail and passenger steamers of the ocean become self-supporting, or less dependent than now, on the fostering care of the Government and the national treasury.[C]
[C]Since this was written, Mr. Drayton has shown me the receipt for this year'staxeson the Havre Company, which are $7,782, the two ships being valued at $500,000 only.
[C]Since this was written, Mr. Drayton has shown me the receipt for this year'staxeson the Havre Company, which are $7,782, the two ships being valued at $500,000 only.