Packet ship

“ The “Lapwing,” out of a crew of thirty-two men and boys, could spare but few from the handling of the ship and the service of the guns.
However, in a fight so close to port, there was always the chance that the sound of cannon might attract some friendly cruiser; and Captain Furze answered the summoning gun with a broadside. The American immediately ran down and closed. A desperate fight followed. After the cannonade had lasted some considerable time, the American captain seized a favourable opportunity, and hurled his boarders into the Packet. ”

“ It is not asserted that every Packet whose capture is mentioned in these pages was surrendered without firing a shot; but it is certainly true that in hardly one case did any serious fighting occur. The very sailors who were captured were not devoid of spirit, as appeared in the case of the “Marquis of Kildare,” whose loss was mentioned above. The greater part of the crew of this Packet remained prisoners on board the Privateer, but twelve were left on their own ship, in charge of a prize crew. ”

“ Packing-cases, portmanteaus, carpet-bags, and boxes, are already passed from hand to hand, and hauled on board with breathless rapidity. The officers, smartly dressed, are at the gangway handing the passengers up the side, and hurrying the men. In five minutes’ time, the little steamer is utterly deserted, and the packet is beset and over-run by its late freight, who instantly pervade the whole ship, and are to be met with by the dozen in every nook and corner: swarming down below with their own baggage, and stumbling over other people’s ”

“ Atlantic, 46,
⁠221, 247, 254, 277-8
⁠Australian, 266, 268, 281-
⁠2, 284, 336, 338
⁠California, 213, 218, 225,
⁠227-8; (eastward) , 233,
⁠293, 296, 365-9
⁠China, 199, 207, 208, 209,
⁠329, 335
Fastest ships: packet,
⁠Yorkshire, 46; clipper,
⁠Rainbow, 67; Sea Witch,
⁠192; Gt. Republic, 243 ”

“ But once ships began to carry passengers to the practical exclusion of freight, speed became desirable, and the North Atlantic packets were designed more and more with speed in mind. This resulted in a demand for really scientific naval architects and because Americans were the ones chiefly interested in building faster ships, and because, too, the packet lines could afford to pay for their services, able men turned their attention to this important problem. ”

“ His couple of 12–pounder carronades were double-shotted, and as the lugger sheered up under the stern of the “Cornwallis” she got such a storm of grape and canister along her decks as took the heart out of her for boarding; while as she fell away in some confusion the Packet’s starboard guns came to bear, and were discharged at short range with terrible effect. ”

“ They were, however, certainly of greater weight than the “Hinchinbrooke’s” 9–pounder carronades, and at the short range at which they were discharged, did great execution on the Packet’s hull and rigging. ”

“ In consequence of this intimation, a plan and proposal was drawn up for a weekly transmission of the Mails between Falmouth and Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, by efficient steam packets, and at a cost to the public which should be less than that of the then existing inferior arrangement—namely, sailing packets 7 to and from the Port of Lisbon, and a steam packet, once a month only, to and from Cadiz and Gibraltar. ”

“ With a fair wind a vessel may be in the open sea in a quarter of an hour after slipping her moorings off Green Bank, opposite the town of Falmouth; and here the Packets used to lie until the day before sailing, when they warped out into Carrach Roads, and lay there to receive the mails, in order that not the slightest loss of time might occur in proceeding to sea when the bags were once on board. ”

“ Such a Service had existed on the eastern coast of England from very early times; and in the Packets of Harwich or Dover a model for the new establishment was ready to hand. A somewhat different type of vessel was required for the Corunna voyage. The new Packets were considerably larger, nearly two hundred tons, while those serving in the North Sea did not usually exceed sixty tons. They were also more heavily armed, as became vessels which ventured further from the protection of English cruisers in the home waters, and carried a larger complement of men. ”

“ All four set sail in company; but almost before they had weighed anchor they were suddenly enveloped in a dense fog, in which they separated. At the same time the wind shifted again into the north-east, and rose quickly to a strong gale, with showers of snow and sleet, against which the four Packets beat vainly throughout two nights and a day, when, finding it absolutely impossible to make progress, they returned once more to Yarmouth. ”

“ The Court is of opinion that the circumstance of the ‘Duke of Marlborough’ being in moderate weather without any lower studding sails, and with her royal masts down, appears to have left the Prisoner, Captain Phillott, and the officers of the ‘Primrose,’ under an impression that she was a merchant vessel; and the very small size of the flag and pendant used by the Packet in making the private signal, and the topgallant sail being close up to the masthead, may reasonably account for not seeing the signal ”

“ Ores of every description, on an oversea voyage, should be stowed in a boxed hold, or on platforms in the centre of the ship, thoroughly blocked from the sides. In a word, the proper stowage of a ship, whether as regards her form or the nature of her cargo, is a science which has not been sufficiently studied.
[304] We must ever remember that although, since we relieved our Shipowners of all the restrictions to which they were subjected by the Navigation Laws, they have advanced above all other nations, the shipping of many of those nations are now running them a very close race. ”

“ The Admiralty, however, had every reason to believe that to this estimate of the cost, &c., of the vessels, which they considered to be absolutely necessary for the satisfactory performance of the Mail Packet Service in the Indian seas, the outlay of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company would be increased by an additional sum of nearly £50,000, for what may be termed the luxurious accommodation now expected by passengers. ”

“ Aside from these considerations, the supposed advantage to be derived from allowing cargo to come in, when considered intrinsically, is without force. Under this theory, two vessels would depart on the same day from a foreign port; one bound to a port in the United States, with cargo, under a charter to foreign citizens to convey their goods into this country; the second ship proceeding in ballast, under charter to American citizens to proceed to the United States and there take cargo. ”

“ Clearing a cargo from an English port was a complicated process. When the goods were brought down to the wharf they were taken over by the packer and his underlings, whose duty it was to pack them and enter them at the custom-house, giving a true inventory of the contents of the bales. The merchant having paid the duties to the customers, the latter sent ‘cocketts’ or tallies for the same to the searcher, who searched the ship to see if they were true. ”

“ The routes upon which lines of steam packets can be sustained and made profitable to the owners are comparatively few, when we take into view the infinitely diversified ramifications of trade. Great Britain, with her vast colonial and general commerce, had, in 1848, but fifteen lines in which national or contract vessels were employed, including the home stations, as they are called, or points of connection between the British islands. Nor has the ocean steam packet system hindered, in the slightest degree, her progress in the construction of steam or sailing vessels for the naval service. ”

“ Its commerce is speculative but vast and successful. It is a frequent circumstance that a ship goes out without a cargo for a voyage around the world. In such a case the captain puts his elder children to school, takes his wife and younger children and starts for some semi-barbarous place where he procures some odd kind of cargo which he exchanges with advantage for another somewhere else; and so goes trafficking around the world, bringing home a freight of the highest value. ”

“ Nothing short of absolute necessity kept the Packets lying idle. If any craft afloat got out to sea they were expected to do so; but not the best will or the finest seamanship around the coast could take a Packet from Yarmouth upon her course for Hamburg in the teeth of an easterly gale. And so the “Prince of Orange” lay at anchor, while more mails continually collected in the agent’s office, until, when at last the wind veered round, and blew from the south, there were three other Packets also ready to put out to sea. ”

“ Another thing may be mentioned: the telegraph enables the fact of the sailing of a vessel, with its cargo on board, to be communicated from Calcutta or San Francisco to Liverpool, and from that moment the cargo becomes as marketable as if it were on the spot. There are cases, indeed, where the freight by sailing ship is even greater than by steamer, as the charge for warehousing at home is saved, and in the meantime the cargo while at sea is negotiable. ”

“ Why it is more like a maritime fair. Never was there such a bustle of shipping since the world was made. An average of over a hundred merchant ships a day pass through the narrow gateway guarded by the Dover patrol. Motor boats, flocks of them; scores of traders at anchor in the Downs; busy transports on their way to Havre; up to windward a cluster of mine-sweepers; down to leeward a line of lean destroyers, it is night and day with them as with all the ships, through every changing mood of the Channel—rain, storm, snow blizzards, sunshine and sweet airs or "wind like a whetted knife." ”

“ The pumps stop, the hose are uncoupled, under-run, and reeled, and, everything being secured, the ship returns to its normal condition. But not to rest, for there is no rest fore and aft when a voyage is begun. Cargo and stores have to be hoisted out of the lighters, holds have to be stowed, gear secured. All day long the cargo winches rattle, and the tackles rise and fall complainingly. Alongside a double bank of lighters cling, and through cargo-ports and over the rails the freight pours ceaselessly. The twilight deepens with stars; ashore the roar and traffic of the busy town are hushed ”

“ Sir Edward Harland
The place of the old cargo boat was in course of time taken by the so-called “tramp,” the modern [Pg 31] cargo carrier—a good wholesome ship, a large carrier, with sufficient power to take care of herself in all weathers. With modern machinery a tramp can go to the ends of the earth without replenishing her coal supply. One remarkable change has taken place which would have shocked the shipowners of fifty years ago; steamers no longer carry sails and the tendency is to do away with masts. The “standard” ship has only one mast, which is only used for signalling. ”

“ A load-line, do what you may, is the opinion of an expert. How can you, by authority, enforce the opinion of an expert? I have had before me,” he continues, “a great many proposals for ascertaining load-lines for ships. Some of them are very ingenious. By the best of them you may get, with considerable accuracy, the cubical displacement of the empty ship, the displacement of the cargo, and so you may arrive at the cubical space left in the ship available for floating. ”

“ On these assumptions the argument is that cargo has also a function as ballast; that if, for instance, the loss is caused by the improper shifting of pigs of lead, it does not matter whether they are called ballast or cargo, but in either case, so far as the change affects the fitness of the ship as a carrier, it is management of the vessel, within the act. ”

“ The landing or shipment of cargo is not necessarily confined to certain fixed stations, as is obligatory on railways, but boats can stop at any point on their journey to load and unload, and discharge their cargoes direct over the ship's side. ”

“ The Indian and Australian Mail Steam Packet Company complain that the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Packet Company do not employ steam vessels of the size required by the contract, between Suez and Calcutta, and between Ceylon and Hong Kong, and offer to do the service at less expense. ”

“ The ship was constructed with the especial design of carrying cotton, and the entire hold, with the exception of a very limited space reserved for passengers’ luggage, is closely packed with the bales, The lading was performed with the utmost care, each bale being pressed into its proper place by the aid of screw-jacks, so that the whole freight forms one solid and compact mass; not an inch of space is wasted, and the vessel is thus made capable of carrying her full complement of cargo. ”

“ It is inconceivable how much work is involved in unloading an average size Cargo Ship, for it is capable of carrying about 7000 tons (depending on the type of cargo) in her 5 Holes or Hatches - two of which are forward of the Bridge and the other three aft. When necessary we could assign around the clock a crew (18 or 20 men) to each hole to move a lot of cargo. ”

“ In these days a ship is often chartered to carry a cargo to a particular port, and there the captain obtains another cargo, such as the market affords him, to some other port, and so he may wander over the world in the most unforeseen manner before he finds a profitable opportunity of returning to his starting-place. So, probably, in those times the spirited merchant would not merely oscillate between home and a given foreign point, but would carry on a traffic of an adventurous and hazardous but exciting kind, from one of the great European ports to another. ”