Steamship company

“ The steamship company, as a common carrier, is, upon well-settled principles, responsible for this loss, unless it is relieved from liability by some special exception or express stipulation in the bill of lading, or by reason of some established or known usage at the port of New York. ”

“ Nasmyth interviewed the directors of the Great Western Steamship Company with regard to the manufacture of some unusually powerful tools which they needed for forging the paddle-shaft of the Great Britain. As the invention of the steam-engine had demanded the improvement of turning methods, so now the increase in the size of steamboats showed the insufficiency of forging machinery. ”

“ A further and larger addition, the Clodagh, now building, will shortly be added to the fleet, embracing all the above improvements, with an increased speed, and increased first-class passenger accommodation.
The Waterford Steamship Company were amongst the first steamship owners to discard the bowsprit and figure-head, and to adopt the straight stem. They were also amongst the first owners to build steamers with saloons amidships, and it is their proud boast that in the Liverpool and Waterford service, extending over sixty years, they never lost a ship or a human life. ”

“ The Florio line, the Mediterranean fleet of the Anchor line, and the Mediterranean and New York Steamship Company, handle nearly all of this class of trade.
The tank steamship, for carrying oil in bulk, is an American invention. Ship-builders declared for years that no vessel with a shifting cargo, like oil in bulk, would live through a gale, but an enterprising Yankee demonstrated the fact that petroleum could be244 pumped from the pipe line directly into the hold of a steamship and transported across the ocean in safety. ”

“ Many of the views advanced with regard to the Pacific Mail Company will apply to the United States Mail Steamship Company. That Company, at the outset, built very fine steamers, and ran them incessantly, until they were unfit for duty. They have constantly supplied their place, and have at all times, by building and by chartering at the highest prices, kept up a large and costly fleet for their ramified service. The service contemplated in their original contract, at $1.883/4 cents per mile, is but about two thirds of that actually performed. ”

“ We have now been able to see steamship lines established and sending their fleets regularly with passengers, cargoes, and mails to the uttermost ends of the earth, and we have been able to look ahead a little so that we shall be free to concentrate our attention very shortly on that centre of steamship activity the North Atlantic. Between 1840 and 1860 the Cunard Company had practically a monopoly of the Atlantic trade. ”

“ Not only was she built to the requirements of the Board of Trade and the insurance companies, but, as we have noted, she was constructed by the leading shipbuilding company of the world, under conditions which would inspire them to put into the world's greatest steamship the very best that the long experience and ample facilities of the yard could produce. ”

“ Thompson is sound, and applicable to the case under consideration, then, upon its failure or neglect to give the consignees notice of the time and place of discharging the cargo, so as to enable them to take their goods from alongside the vessel, the steamship company was bound to land and deposit the goods in the warehouse provided for that purpose, or in a public store, as the collector of the port of New York might direct. ”

“ Provided, that all steamships hereafter accepted for said service shall be of not less than four thousand tons register each, and shall be built of iron, and, with their engines and machinery, shall be wholly of American construction; and shall be so constructed as to be readily adapted to the armed naval service of the United States, in case of war, and, before acceptance, the officers by whom they are inspected shall report to the Secretary of the Navy and the Postmaster-General whether this condition has been complied with. ”

“ All the steamers engaged in the Liverpool and Glasgow trade prior to 1839 were built of wood, but in that year a new steamship company entered into competition with the existing companies, and placed the Royal Sovereign, an iron steamer, on the station., The immediate result was a heavy drop in passenger and freight rates. Steerage passengers were carried for 1s. each, and boxes and bale goods for 1d. per foot measurement. ”

“ From 1894 to 1902 there was an increase from 200,000 tons to over 1,000,000 tons of foreign shipping in which American capital has held large interests. An American corporation has been established, which is the largest and most completely equipped steamship company, but only sixteen of its 136 steamers are entitled to the American flag. In the formation of this company—the International Mercantile Marine Company—the following companies were purchased:
Shipping, Coastwise and Interior. ”

“ That such was the understanding of the parties to this contract receives strong confirmation from language found in the bid or offer of the company, which was accepted without qualification by the Postmaster-General. It is this: 'We are now building two iron propellers of about 4,500 tons register, capable of steaming twelve knots, and propose, as soon as practicable, with the limited facilities now available in America, to build two more steamers of like construction, but larger and of higher speed, all of which we shall offer for the service in question. ”

“ Liverpool, [14] 500 tons gross, 160 h. p.; City of Londonderry, [14] 500 tons gross, 160 h. p. Branch steamers, Peninsula, Guadalquiver, Estrella and Sol.
In 1837 the Government advertised for tenders from steamship owners for the conveyance of the mails between Falmouth and the Peninsula, which up to that time were conveyed by sailing brigs which left Falmouth for Lisbon every week, “wind and weather permitting.” In response to this advertisement two companies, the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, and the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, sent in tenders. ”

“ For upwards of nine years Great Britain had held a monopoly of the transatlantic steamship business. America could and did build sailing vessels that were unsurpassed by those belonging to any other nation; her Baltimore clippers, Boston packets, and New York liners were all of them vessels of the highest class and reputation. But apparently Americans could neither build, nor own ocean steamers that were capable of successfully competing with British owned steamships. ”

“ When we read of fine,214 handsome, well-found modern liners going astray in the broad ocean, or of excellent, capable little cross-channel steamships foundering between port and port, without any living witnesses to tell how it all happened, we have a reminder that the ways of man are clever beyond all words, but that Nature is cleverer still. What the future of the steamship will be no one can tell. Already ship-builders profess themselves capable of turning out a monster up to 1,000 feet in length. ”

“ Many years of experience in the management of steamships have enabled the company to design and construct a magnificent fleet of fast cargo liners, having lofty ’tween decks, and fitted with anti-rolling keels, electric light and every modern improvement. Several of these were chartered at an early stage of the war by the British Admiralty, and retained for voyage after voyage as transports. Nine steamers, of an aggregate gross tonnage of 52,000 tons, were requisitioned in this way. ”

“ On Saturday, the 8th of May, 1897, no less than 1,500 saloon passengers left New York for Liverpool on the great ocean greyhounds. The travelling season is comparatively short, the competition is keen, and the enormous expense of building, furnishing and running up-to-date steamships renders it difficult to provide the requisite accommodation on a paying basis. The up-to-date steamship must be built of steel, to combine light weight with strength. It must have triple or quadruple expansion engines to economize fuel. ”

“ The Royal William had to utilize all her hold for coal in order to carry sufficient fuel to insure a completion of the voyage. The reasons for the commercial failure of such craft are, therefore, apparent; but they proved to be available and profitable for coastwise traffic, and meantime inventive genius was at work on plans and models and theories, all intended for the construction of a steamship capable of carrying goods and passengers between Europe and America, and of outrunning the packets. ”

“ If a line has turbines and wireless telegraphy, submarine bells, the latest232 conceivable luxury, speed and other virtues, he is sufficiently well informed to appreciate these things to the disadvantage of another service, scarcely less efficient, but perhaps a little less advanced in accordance with the very latest inventions and improvements. An old ship that has done years of good service and earned a reputation for punctuality and reliability has to be scrapped before her time just because a rival service has held out the tempting bait of the latest steamship features. ”

“ The first serious effort to apply steam power to vessels of any size dates back to only 1838-1840, years which witnessed the establishment of the Royal Mail, the Peninsular and Oriental, and the Cunard Steamship Companies. Their first vessels were steamers of 1,200 tons, having a speed of eight or nine knots. Such vessels were not formidable competitors of the old packet ships, except in the passenger trades; their average passage across the Atlantic, occupying from thirteen to seventeen days, not being a great improvement upon the passages of the sailing-packets. ”

“ In the days of the long peace that followed Waterloo, and the great industrial development that came with it, the steam-engine and the paddle-steamer made their way into the commercial fleets of the world, slowly and timidly at first, for it was a long time before a steamship could be provided with enough efficient engine power to enable her to show the way to a smart clipper-built sailing-ship, and the early marine engines were fearfully uneconomical. ”

“ Many circumstances combined to make the Clyde the birthplace and the home of the Marine Steam Engine. Coal and iron mines were in close proximity, and skilled labour for the construction of engines and of ships was abundant. The beautiful Firth, with its numerous lochs and islands, constituted an ideal locality for the employment of steamboats while yet the art of steamship building was in its infancy. And on the shores of the River, or within easy distance of it, dwelt a large industrial population, eager to take advantage of the facilities for travel which steamboats afforded. ”

“ America has supported the transatlantic lines, but almost every civilized people with a seacoast has outdone us in building the ships. For a time, indeed, it seemed that we should speedily overcome the lead that England immediately took in building steamships. Her entrance upon this industry was, as we have seen, in 1838. The United States took it up about ten years later. In 1847 the Ocean Steam Navigation Company was organized in this country and secured from the Government a contract to carry the mails between New York and Bremen. ”

“ One greatly improved liner nowadays so quickly surpasses her predecessor; the age of obsolescence now moves at so greatly quickened a speed; that the general public, whose memory is also so short-lived, scarcely has time to appreciate all that the latest steamship means ere it has passed quietly from service and been handed over to the ship-breakers, or, under a new flag and a changed name, continues its work at some remote corner of the world. ”

“ The firm own a fleet of five powerful modern coasting steamers, each having a capacity of about 2,500 tons dead weight, and [Pg 320] named respectively the Bangarth, Calgarth, Dalegarth, Gatesgarth, and Throstlegarth. In addition to these vessels, the firm possesses five steam tugs and about 200 lighters. Messrs. R. & J. H. Rea have offices at London, Liverpool, Southampton, Bristol and Cardiff.
John S. Sellers.—Mr. Sellers commenced business as a steamship owner at Liverpool in the early nineties, the first steamer acquired by him being the Timbo. ”

“ Whether steamships will flourish much longer, or whether they will in turn be surpassed, as they have ousted the sailing ship, is a debatable proposition. At any rate, to anyone who has at heart one of the greatest and most powerful forces in the spread of civilisation, the story of steamship evolution, from comparative inutility to a state of efficiency which is remarkable even in this wonder age, cannot but appeal with an attractiveness commensurate with its importance. ”

“ Commercially speaking, this factor of safety in favor of steam-shipping is to a great extent counterbalanced by the value of the steamship, which bears to that of the sailing-vessel per net carrying ton the proportion of 3: 1, thus reducing the ratio in favor of steam-shipping as 13·29 to 10·38, or in round numbers as as 4: 3. ”

“ The Laurentic and Megantic are, as to hulls, sister ships, and each has a tonnage of 14,900, thus being among the largest steamers in the Canadian trade. But whilst the latter is a twin-screw ship propelled by reciprocating engines, the former has three screws and a combination of reciprocating engines and a210 low-pressure turbine, being the first large passenger steamship to be designed with this ultra-modern method. Each of the “wing” propellers is driven by four-crank triple balanced engines, the central propeller, however, being driven by the turbine. ”