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Title: The mercantile marine
Author: E. Keble Chatterton
Release date: March 14, 2026 [eBook #78205]
Language: English
Original publication: London: William Heinemann, Ltd, 1923
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78205
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Transcriber’s Note
Italic text displayed as: _italic_
_BOOKS ON THE SEA BY_
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON
_HISTORICAL_
Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY
SAILING SHIPS AND THEIR STORY
SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS
FORE AND AFT: THE STORY OF THE FORE AND AFT RIG
STEAMSHIPS AND THEIR STORY
THE ROMANCE OF THE SHIP
THE STORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY
KING’S CUTTERS AND SMUGGLERS
THE ROMANCE OF PIRACY
THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN
_CRUISES_
DOWN CHANNEL IN THE “VIVETTE”
THROUGH HOLLAND IN THE “VIVETTE”
THE MERCANTILE MARINE
The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton. By _Dr. Hugh R. Mill_. Demy 8vo.
Illustrated.
Price about 21_s._ net.
The Life & Letters of Walter H. Page. By _Burton J. Hendrick_. In two
volumes. Sixth impression. Demy 8vo.
36_s._ net.
The Letters of Lord & Lady Wolseley. Edited by _Sir George Arthur._
Second impression, with a new index. Demy 8vo.
25_s._ net.
Knole & the Sackvilles. By _V. Sackville-West_. With many
illustrations. Second impression. Demy 8vo.
25_s._ net.
Woodrow Wilson & World Settlement. By _Ray Stannard Baker_. In three
volumes. Demy 8vo. Vols. I & II, 36_s._ net. Vol. III (sold separately)
18_s._ net.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
H.E. INDIA COMPANY’S SHIP “WILLIAM FAIRLIE.”
Commanded by Captain Thomas Blair, leaving the harbour of Prince of
Wales’ Island. About 1828.]
THE
MERCANTILE MARINE
BY
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON
[Illustration]
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN, LTD.
_First published, 1923_
_Printed in Great Britain_
PREFACE
This volume is an attempt to trace the history of the Mercantile
Marine, and to show the reader how much we owe to our ancestors for the
ingenuity, enterprise, courage and perseverance by which the Merchant
Service has been built up for the good of nations, the increase of
trade and the spread of civilisation.
In other volumes I have endeavoured to trace the history of ships.
The subject here considered is the birth and growth of a sea service,
without which the navies of the world become useless and indeed could
never have been brought into being. It is high time that the public
appreciated all that is meant by the term Mercantile Marine.
The part played by commercial ships as fighting craft during the recent
war does not enter into this book. This section was largely treated of
in my _Q-Ships and Their Story_, and other writers have drawn attention
to the dangers and difficulties of freighters and passenger ships
carrying on through the period of hostilities. Those four years form
so small a chapter in the thousands of years during which the trader
has been winning its way across the seas, that it is unnecessary to
deal with them here. Our aim is rather to consider the progress of the
Mercantile Marine as a whole, from the earliest times to the latest
liner development.
The story here submitted is the result of many years of research,
travel and ship study. I have had access to many manuscripts and
printed books too numerous to mention. I desire to return thanks to
Messrs. T. H. Parker, 12A Berkeley Street, W., for permission to use
some invaluable, rare prints; and to the Cunard and White Star Lines
for certain other illustrations of a magnificent service.
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE DEMAND FOR MERCHANT SHIPPING 7
III. THE MEDITERRANEAN MERCANTILE MARINE 17
IV. THE MERCHANT SHIPS OF THE NORTH 30
V. THE GROWTH OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE 42
VI. THE MERCANTILE MARINE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 53
VII. FISHERMEN AND MERCHANTMEN 62
VIII. SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SEAFARIN 75
IX. MERCANTILE SUPREMACY AT SEA 90
X. MIGHTY MERCHANTMEN 103
XI. PACKET SHIPS AND BRIGS 119
XII. THE SAIL-CARRIERS 134
XIII. CRACKING-ON 150
XIV. THE TRIUMPH OF STEAM 168
XV. THE IRON AND STEEL AGE 182
XVI. THE MODERN MERCHANT SHIP 194
XVII. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GERMAN MERCANTILE MARINE 208
XVIII. THE AMERICAN MERCANTILE MARINE 220
XIX. THE MINOR MERCANTILE MARINES 229
XX. THE FUTURE OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE 238
APPENDIX 246
INDEX 249
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Facing page_
H.E. INDIA COMPANY’S SHIP “WILLIAM FAIRLIE” _Frontispiece_
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY DUTCH EAST INDIAMEN 74
SIGNAL CODE 74
CAPTAIN THOMAS FORREST 90
BRUNSWICK DOCK, BLACKWALL 92
CAPTAIN HENRY WILSON 98
CAPTAIN HON. RICHARD WALPOLE 98
COMMODORE SIR NATHANIEL DANCE 98
SIR WILLIAM JAMES, BART. 98
A CONVOY OF EAST INDIAMEN 112
A FINE PIECE OF SEAMANSHIP 118
CAPTAIN W. ROGERS 122
CAPTAIN JOSEPH HUDDART, F.R.S. 122
S.S. “NORTHUMBERLAND” 144
AUXILIARY S.S. “KENT” 146
S.S. “NORFOLK” 148
SAILING NOTICE OF THE WHITE STAR CLIPPER “RED JACKET” 156
CRACKING-ON! 158
SPARS AND STAYS 160
PORT OF LIVERPOOL 164
SCREW S.S. “LADY JOCELYN” 164
AUXILIARY SCREW S.S. “INDOMITABLE” 166
LORD YARBOROUGH’S YACHT “FALCON” 168
CLIPPER SCREW S.S. “HELLENIS” 170
S.S. “ORINOCO” 170
TWO EARLY MAIL STEAMSHIPS 180
S.S. “TRIDENT” 182
THE “ROBERT F. STOCKTON” 184
AN EARLY CROSS-CHANNEL STEAMER 184
THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN” 186
THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN” 188
S.S. “OCEANIC” 190
S.S. “SULTAN” 192
S.S. “ORIENT” 192
S.S. “SPAIN” 194
THE “BRITANNIC” 196
THE “CAMPANIA” 196
BERTHING A BIG LINER 198
MODERN NAVIGATION 200
S.S. “BERENGARIA” 202
S.S. “OLYMPIC” 204
S.S. “MAJESTIC” 204
ON THE BRIDGE OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SHIP 206
BIG SHIP MASTERS 208
STOKEHOLD OF AN OIL-FUEL CUNARDER 216
STARTING PLATFORM 216
A FAST-DISAPPEARING SHIP TYPE 236
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
It is curious to observe how thoroughly most of us are the slaves of
habit, how limited we are in our imagination and sympathies until
something surprising, far-reaching and inevitable upsets our routine,
introduces a new force into our life and compels us to take note of
fresh interests.
Until the recent war most people took the Mercantile Marine for
granted. In a vague sort of way the average person believed in it, but
rarely if ever stopped to consider what it meant or whether it had any
history. It was sufficient to concede the fact that there were steamers
running every week to most parts of the globe, and that passengers
and goods could be carried as convenient. But there was not the same
enthusiasm extended to the Mercantile Marine as there was to the doings
of the Royal Navies; and unless some new mammoth steamship advertised
herself by her size, speed or luxury, the Merchant Service was allowed
to continue its all-important work unheeded and almost despised.
But then came the sudden change, which gave an entirely different
viewpoint. How few of us ever realise our good fortune until it
is taken away from our hold! The increasing success of the U-boat
campaign, culminating in the enormous sinkings of merchantmen in April
1917, and the consequent shortage of food in the British Isles, caused
the inhabitants for the first time in their lives to appreciate all
that they owed to the Mercantile Marine. It was then—and not till
then—they reminded themselves that the food supplies, which formed the
necessities of life, were brought into the country by a service whose
very existence had almost been ignored.
Every meal and every food-card, every little inconvenience in regard
to hunger, henceforth turned people’s minds back to the prime cause;
and those who had been the most ignorant of seafaring matters now
began to think in terms of tonnage. From that time the average man and
woman and school-child have never ceased to be thankful that we had a
marine, whose duty was not to fight, but to keep us supplied with the
essentials of existence. Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty recently
said that the Mercantile Marine was a branch of that great sea service
without which the British Empire would cease to exist. In a normal
year, he said, the amount of food supplies forming the necessities of
life which are brought into the British Isles and taken out consists of
150,000,000 tons. Without the one service to carry these food supplies,
and the Royal Navy to protect the commercial craft on their lawful
occasions, the reader can now well imagine how long starvation would be
kept away.
Thus we are about to trace the story of a service that is not merely
well deserving of our interest and enthusiasm, but is in itself so
fascinating that we shall feel almost ashamed that we never conceded
so much attention until harsh circumstances compelled us to reflect.
In order to maintain our bread and meat supplies, in order to prevent
overseas trade from utterly vanishing during those terrible years of
hostilities, 15,000 men of the Mercantile Marine perished. That in
itself would be a sufficient reason for inquiring into the history of
their service; but, quite apart from that, there is the plea that the
Mercantile Marine is the older of the two branches of the sea service,
for out of it grew the fighting service only years after man had learnt
to handle vessels.
Over those far-distant periods when the ancient seaman was groping his
way towards knowledge we shall not require to spend much time. In other
volumes I have already traced the evolution of the ship from a crude
creature to a thing of beauty. Nor shall we need to be concerned with
the horrors of war. Our task is the pleasant and glorious study of
watching brave men creating a peaceable marine that will be the means
of interchanging commerce over seas at first uncharted; bringing back
new ideas and then taking out civilisation. All the time it is one big
struggle, varying only in kind and intensity. It is one long, strenuous
effort to achieve; and because it is all so human it demands our
attention all the while, as we sympathise with the incessant attempts
to overcome all sorts of obstacles.
The human race springs from the land: consequently all the arts
of the sea have to be learnt from the beginning, and this means
centuries of experience, many disappointments and enormous faith and
courage. But human aspirations cannot be gainsaid. Progress will not
be denied. Man is not content to remain where he was, and that is
the basis of the whole story. The Egyptians created their Mercantile
Marine almost exclusively for the Nile. It was the Phœnicians who
felt the overwhelming desire to traverse the Mediterranean, and even
to go outside the gates we call the Straits of Gibraltar. The Greeks
inherited from the Phœnicians a ship which they modified but little,
as the Phœnicians had from the Egyptians.
But whereas the Egyptians were a peace-loving race, and therefore their
ships were not built for fighting, we find the Greeks constructing
two distinct types of craft, and it is important to get this quite
clear at once, as the reader will presently agree. First there was the
swift-moving galley, relying chiefly on oars. She was built for the
purposes of fighting, and therefore does not enter into our subject.
But secondly there was the slow-moving, big-bellied craft, relying
almost entirely on her one mast and sail, which was used for the
purpose of trade from spring to autumn, and then laid up until the good
weather returned once more. Think of her with her great square-sail
going across to Egypt to bring back corn, calling at Rhodes on the way,
getting caught in terrible weather, but year after year, century after
century, doing the same voyages as a new generation of seamen grew up.
So it was with the Roman merchant ships from every March to November,
blundering on their trans-Mediterranean voyages as corn-carriers. These
seamen were, as always sailors have been and will be, a race apart. In
the mind of most people nobody but a fool or a madman ever takes up a
seafaring career. Seamen were very scarce and had to be allowed special
privileges; and merchants who travelled in their ships marvelled that
they could use the stars for finding their way over the dark waters at
night. But the transportation of goods over the sea had to be done.
The shipowners formed themselves into corporations, and membership was
handed down from father to son, much as it is in a fishing village
to-day.
One of the oldest professions is that of piracy. In those days a pirate
was not so much a sea bandit as a sea adventurer; the Greek word
_peirates_ and its Latin equivalent signifying one who _attempts_ or
_tries_ his fortune on the sea, much as we speak of the Elizabethan
“venturers.” None the less, until the growth of naval power piracy
always was the great enemy of the merchant ship; and even in Roman
times it at length became so serious that drastic measures had to be
taken to stamp it out, only to keep on recurring like a cancerous
growth until the age of steam practically wiped it out except in
Chinese waters. Over and over again in the following chapters we shall
see the innocent, cargo-carrying ship molested in this manner; but, for
all that, the seaman’s spirit remained undaunted, and the trade of the
world continued to be carried over the seas in spite of these known
risks. As it was in the Mediterranean, so it was later on in the North
Sea.
From about 580 B.C. right down to the time of the Roman conquest,
the Liparian Isles were practically a republic of corsairs. The
Ionians and the Lycians were notorious pirates: the Ægean, the
Pontus and the Adriatic were the corsairs’ cruising grounds. The
Cretans, the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands, the Cilicians, the
Carthaginians, the Illyrians and others, also, were the piratical
terrors to the Mediterranean merchant ships; and it was only as long
as Rome maintained a strong navy that the cancerous growth was kept
under, though not finally eradicated. Thus, in those early periods
when there was little enough to encourage it, the Mercantile Marine
of classical times struggled along, comparatively small in numbers
compared with the fleets of fighting galleys, but historically of the
highest importance, since from this small flame was to burst a great
blaze of light that has illumined the world; spread Christianity and
civilisation, learning, exploration, trade and peace. Those little,
beamy, single-sail, unhandy craft wallowing in the Mediterranean seas,
suffering so much at the hands of pirates, buffeted about by storms
and compelled to spend such long periods away from their home ports,
were playing a lonely, uphill game; but they were achieving more than
they could ever realise in the development of the world. Pioneers of
the sea, undertaking the utmost risks, they have made all subsequent
centuries their debtors as long as ships continue to be built and
the seas shall be traversed. Such, briefly, are the first stage and
the very remote period of the merchant ship in its long and glorious
evolution of usefulness. Let us now see how, influenced by progressive
trade, the Mediterranean continued to develop its shipping.
CHAPTER II
THE DEMAND FOR MERCHANT SHIPPING
In our own age so many amazing developments have taken place during the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries that we must not be misled. These
are the exceptions and not the rule in history. Between the merchant
ships of the late Roman Empire and of the next few centuries there is
no evidence to cause us to think the ships materially altered. On the
contrary, what little evidence we have goes to show that the cargo
ship, with her mast, yard and square-sail, continued to be much the
same in the thirteenth century as she was in the third, if we add a
mizzen-mast and a lateen sail.
But all this time the Mediterranean trade had been developing, and
collaterally there was developed a Mercantile Marine. As the years
sped by, there came greater demands for the merchant ship. Thus in the
epistles of Cassiodorus, who was prætorian prefect under Theodoric
(A.D. 495-526), there is a dispatch to the tribunes of the “maritimi,”
or men of the seaboard, bidding them provide for the transport of
wine from Istria to Ravenna; and there is a reference to the frequent
voyages over the “immense spaces of the sea.”[1] By the eighth century
Venice was becoming a great trading port, and its merchants were
realising what the sea meant to them in regard to wealth. Indeed, they
even went so far as to sell Christian men as slaves to the Saracens in
Africa, thus incurring the Pope’s censure.
To Constantinople Venetian merchant ships sailed with goods or
passengers, as, for instance, in the year 968, carrying Bishop
Luitprand thither. In fact, by the year 1000 the city of Venice was
pre-eminent in commerce, and its princes were merchants. Overseas
trading was at last recognised as a means to wealth, and so,
inevitably, by about 1171 the Venetian Navy becomes organised. That
was bound to come as soon as the Mercantile Marine became important;
but it was arranged rather on the lines of our Naval Reserve. For all
ordinary occasions it consisted of volunteers, for whose service there
was payment, and these citizens were also entitled to prize money.
Indeed, throughout nautical history the navies of the world have always
been based on the Merchant Service. In these early days of Venice,
while Dalmatia, Istria and other communities supplied the men, Venice
provided the ships and rigging, the rest of the inventory and the
crew being forthcoming from the dependencies. Finally, in the time of
emergency hired seamen were obtained from foreign countries with whom
the Venetian commercial ships had traded.
He who visits Venice, or is familiar with Ruskin’s _Stones of Venice_,
or at least has admired in some gallery the paintings of the great
Venetian masters, must inevitably think of the sea. Those richly
designed palaces, those luxuriant examples of architecture and art,
were expressive of a city grown wealthy by reason of her sea trade.
Her merchants amassed wealth because their ships enabled them to
trade—the sea is, in fact, the greatest road to riches. And the history
of Phœnicia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Venice, Portugal, Spain, Holland,
England in the past, and quite recently Germany, Japan and the United
States, is the story of overseas trade by means of merchant shipping.
Most important of all have always been the sea routes to the Orient,
for Eastern produce has ever fetched high prices in European countries.
As we look through the centuries of sea trade it was the fascination
of the East which spurred men to build, fit out and sail ships. It was
this which gave the incentive to make navigation a science; it was this
which created the spirit to explore unknown seas; it was this which
sent Columbus, later on, to the West in the hope of finding the East
Indies. The whole story of the East India Company—indeed of our Indian
Empire—is built up on the invaluable products which could be fetched
thence by peaceable shipping.
It was in the seventh century that the twelve townships decided to
elect one supreme magistrate, called the “doge.” Venice thus insisted
on her own independence, and her geographical position enabled her to
rise into a consummate commercial state. Not merely did she eventually
dominate the Adriatic, but step by step she absorbed all the carrying
trade of the world. Keen, enterprising men of vision and foresight,
these Venetian merchants went far afield, in spite of the difficulties
and dangers of travel. For centuries the Chinese had been sending
merchant ships as far west as Ceylon, whence Indian ships carried the
silk and other goods a stage further west to the Persian Gulf; and
afterwards, as there was no Suez Canal, a land journey intervened until
the Mediterranean was reached. Thus, by the early years of the Middle
Ages, the Venetian ships of commerce brought across the Mediterranean
and up the Adriatic the costly skins, the peacocks’ tails, the purple
garments and other enviable articles which had come from India, the
Caspian shores and elsewhere. In the end, Venice captured the great
trade to India and China, and Constantinople was left behind in the
competition.
But that was not all. Already by the seventh century the rise of
Moslem power had become such that in southern Europe Arab dominion had
obtained control of the Levant and Egypt. Presently the whole of the
north African coast, from the Nile to the Atlantic, fell under this
sway, and during the eighth century the Arabs overran Spain, southern
and central France, until in the same century they were forced back
across the Pyrenees. How does this affect the rise of the Mercantile
Marine? The answer is this. The Arabs were excellent sailors who were
also expert navigators, and incidentally the very word “admiral,”
which still survives in the sea service of all civilised powers, is an
Arabic word. The Arabs took to trading, and that meant the employment
of ships in the Mediterranean; so they introduced the triangular lateen
sail from east of Suez, and to this day the lateen has survived as the
characteristic local sail of Mediterranean craft. Thus between Venice
and Africa overseas trade was created, business made still further
business, and that in turn created a demand for shipping and for men
who would use the sea as a career. Later on it was the Arabs who were
to teach the Spaniards and Portuguese so much about navigation that
India and America were discovered.
In the early years of the Middle Ages, then, we have the Arabian and
the Venetian ships trading about the Mediterranean, though frequently
the former became corsairs and made havoc of the latter, even going to
the length of raiding the Adriatic. But so far the peaceable Venetian
craft were literally merchant ships: they existed for the purpose
of carrying merchandise. There enters now another element—religion.
The Catholic faith, trade, pilgrims, crusades and Arabs—all these
influences had the greatest possible effect on the development of
merchant shipping. It will be remembered that in the seventh century
the Arabs had wrested the Holy Land from the Eastern Empire, but it was
not until the latter part of the eleventh century that western Europe
was really moved to action. Finally, in 1095, a holy war against the
infidel was resolved, and there followed the first crusade; and in this
expedition Venetian ships took part. The most famous crusade of all was
that in which the English king Richard Cœur de Lion engaged, and this
ended in a truce with Saladin by September 1192, on the understanding
that pilgrims should be permitted to visit Jerusalem without being
interfered with by the Moslems.
Thus, we have in the fact of the Holy Land a magnetic attraction for
the ship. In order to carry armies and horses and pilgrims, whether
from England or Venice, to the coast of Syria, you must needs have
large numbers of ships, and of fair size and seaworthiness. This series
of voyages created also a much larger body of seamen and amassed a
tremendous amount of sea-knowledge from experience. In a word, then,
it was a new and enormous impetus to the development of the world’s
Mercantile Marine, as opposed to the purely warlike fast-moving naval
galley. The demand now was for tonnage—to carry human beings as well
as goods. Thus, notwithstanding that the crusades originated from a
strictly religious motive, actually they exercised a most remarkable
stimulus on trade, shipping and travel. Men who had never been
previously outside their own city or village became acquainted with the
sea, strange ships, new lands and novel ideas. They returned home with
fresh aspirations, the desire to carry on extended commerce, and the
realisation that shipping was the key to future riches.
To trace the fitting out of all the crusades would be to go outside
the scope of our immediate subject, but it is enough if we look for
a moment at the direct effect crusading had on the Venetian shipping
industry. The gates, so to speak, whence middle Europe could gain
access to the Holy Land were Venice, Genoa and Marseilles. Seven
years after Richard Cœur de Lion had made the truce with Saladin and
left Palestine, a new crusade was being prepared for; and inasmuch as
Venice was so distinguished a seaport, envoys came to arrange for large
quantities of shipping. Landsmen knew practically nothing about the
sea and ships. They were no better informed than the farmer of to-day
resident all his life in the middle of the United States; so they
arrived asking for advice, information and generally to be put in the
way of obtaining tonnage sufficient to carry 4500 knights, 9000 squires
and 20,000 men-at-arms. This was no small order, even for Venice, quite
apart from the further request for fifty armed galleys to accompany
and protect the expedition. It meant, in fact, the creation of an
immense Mercantile Marine at really quite short notice. Indeed it was
comparatively a much bigger task than the sudden demand for tonnage in
1917 and 1918, when the thousands and thousands of soldiers had to be
packed into steamships and brought from North America to Europe.
Venice rose to the occasion, for it was not merely a matter of business
to provide the shipping, but a matter of religion. The Holy Sepulchre
was in the hands of the infidels: that in itself was a sufficient
inspiration. And so about Pentecost in the year 1202 we can see the
hordes of pilgrims pouring down through the various passes of the Alps
to Venice. It was a huge business, and action in those days was slow
and, to our modern minds, dilatory. But the Venetians had got the ships
ready for the knights and squires and men and horses, though it was
autumn before they put to sea. Some of the cloth and provisions had
arrived in Venice in French ships via the Straits of Gibraltar, and
eventually, on October 9, the galleys and horseboats set forth from the
Adriatic port, and a month later appeared before Zara.
During the Middle Ages the three great maritime powers were Venice,
Genoa and Pisa, and between them there was the greatest rivalry, so
that scarcely ever did two of the parties meet than there was conflict.
But Venice, being the pre-eminent, incurred the greatest amount of
jealousy. The part which Venice and Genoa played in maritime history
is not confined to what they did in any particular century, but lies
rather in the fact that they kept alive and developed the seaman’s art;
until, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Venetians made
a crude map which put into form the ideas that inspired the first
Italian voyages in the Atlantic, and Genoa in the next century produced
Columbus, who, after being wrecked in a sea-fight with some Venetian
galleys off the Portuguese coast, settled down in Lisbon and eventually
set forth on his historic voyage to the West.
Ever since the second Punic War Genoa had been a big and important
seaport. Becoming a free city in 958, she had suffered much from
the Saracen raids, but when these infidel corsairs seemed likely to
establish themselves in Sardinia at the beginning of the eleventh
century, the Genoese and Pisan seamen united together against a common
foe, fitted out an expedition and hurled the Arab chief back to Africa.
In 1087 the Genoese and Pisans were sent by the Pope to dislodge
one Temim, a pirate chief who lived south of Tunis. The result was
important to the shipping industry; for, having beaten him and captured
his stronghold, the two cities stipulated for the free admission
of their merchant ships to trade with the Tunisian coast. Thus, in
clearing the seas of corsairs for a time, they also directly stimulated
their own commerce.
Pisan merchant ships as far back as 1052 had been trading to Egypt
and the Levant, and in 1063 Ingulf, Abbot of Croyland in England, had
returned from a pilgrimage in a Genoese merchant ship he had found at
Jaffa. But it was not until the year 1090 that the conquest of Sicily
was effected from the Mussulman hands, and thus the Straits of Messina
became safe for shipping, and the vessels from Genoa and Pisa could go
ahead in safety with their Levantine trade. By the twelfth century,
Genoese, Venetian and Pisan seamen and merchants used to meet at Acre,
to their great financial benefit, though not without manifestations of
commercial jealousy. But we must dismiss from our minds all thoughts
of single ships sailing across from Italy to the Syrian coast when
they liked. There was hardly a time when there were not some pirates
or corsairs hovering about; so the seas might be rid of one chief,
but rendered dangerous by the rovings of another. Thus it was that
shipowners had to do exactly what British mercantile owners were
compelled to resort to in the latter part of the Great War, when the
enemy was attacking so many of our trading craft—the convoy system had
to be employed.
Thus, from Venice, for instance, at regular intervals a convoy of
merchant ships would sail for Acre, escorted by as many as thirty or
forty galleys sometimes, as protection against piratical attack. If
the Venice-Acre trade route were cut, it would mean that the French,
the Germans, the Lombards, the Tuscans and other merchants would not
receive the silks, sugar, pepper and other very valuable Oriental
produce which the Venetians were bringing across in their ships. Thus
the navy of Venice was charged with the duty of protecting its merchant
fleet from the attacks of Genoese, Greek or Arab pirates. Just as
during our recent war convoys used to collect at Falmouth and other
ports prior to beginning their ocean voyage, so in the Middle Ages the
convoy—called a _mudia_—would collect at Venice, bound for Syria or
Egypt. There were only two convoys in the year, so the number of ships
was large, and well needed the strong galley protection. One convoy
left Venice in the spring and got back home in September; the other
left in August, spent the winter abroad, and returned in the following
May. In addition to these commercial convoys, there were also the
pilgrim convoys to Palestine. Genoa sent one convoy a year to Syria and
Egypt, but during the fourteenth century her ships were cruising in the
Black Sea and harassing Venetian craft which had penetrated the Sea of
Azov.
Sea-travel in those mediæval times was thus no pleasure cruise: it
was comparable only to the anxious experiences of passengers at the
height of the recent submarine campaign. Except for religion or
trade, no one ever thought of going to sea. It was too dangerous
an undertaking, so punctuated with storms, and in all respects so
thoroughly uncomfortable, that it was to be avoided as far as possible.
Consequently those who used it as a living expected to be paid very
handsomely. It is difficult in these modern times, with all the safety
and luxury which a steamship connotes, to realise the horror with which
all seafaring was regarded. The result was that artists hesitated
to depict marine subjects; and even when they did, it was usually
to show a ship having a dreadful time in heavy weather. It is for
that reason that illustrations of mediæval ships are so few, either
in stained-glass windows, carvings, devotional books, or paintings.
People had no wish to be reminded of what was to them a very unpleasant
subject, except to those hardened few who preferred ship-life to
agriculture or trade ashore. Unlike present-day conditions, the
merchant himself was compelled to go to sea. There was no other means
of his reaching his markets; but he was heartily thankful to get
himself and his goods safe into port.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _The Early History of Venice_, by F. C. Hodgson. London, 1901. I
wish also to acknowledge indebtedness to the same author’s _Venice in
the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries_.
CHAPTER III
THE MEDITERRANEAN MERCANTILE MARINE
It is fortunately possible to obtain from various sources an insight
into life as it was endured in a mediæval Mediterranean merchant ship,
and this will assist us considerably to form a sympathetic interest in
the development which was going on towards the ideal craft that was to
evolve five or six hundred years later.
On a tomb in a church at Milan, a Pisan artist named Balduccio in
the year 1339 sculptured, fortunately for our knowledge, a merchant
ship of his time, and we may regard her as typical alike of Venice,
Genoa and Pisa. There is remarkably little difference in essentials
between her and a Roman merchant ship of about A.D. 200: that is to
say, the trading shipmen, having once found out a suitable type, stuck
to it, just as to-day there is a more or less standard type of tramp
steamer or steam trawler or steam drifter. Time had tested and given
its approval. Thus in Balduccio’s illustration we have a round, beamy
vessel not unlike the shape of a very fat banana, and with a stern
sweeping up from the water-line not altogether unlike that of the
so-called modern “cruiser stern.” The essential difference is that
this stern culminates in two small decks—a stern-castle, in fact, and
a forecastle, much smaller, overhanging the bows. There is also a
fighting-top.
Although this is emphatically a cargo vessel, these castles and
fighting-top are there for the reasons already indicated by existing
conditions at sea, and in this elaborate castellation with even small
galleries aft we have the half-way house between the earlier and later
Mediterranean merchantman: between the cargo-carrier of Rome and
the carack, which was to develop into the galleon, thence into the
East Indiaman, and eventually into the glorious clippers of the late
nineteenth century. Thus this Pisan ship is for us most interesting,
and she still links herself to primitive times by the use of one single
square-sail and the old-fashioned method of steering by means of a
rudder, not aft, but on the quarter. It is controlled by a tiller, but
supported by tackles fore and aft, for it is now as heavy as a Thames
sailing barge’s leeboards.
Everything about this Pisan craft indicates that she was well and
strongly built, and that expense was not spared. The elaborate work in
her stern galleries, the influence of contemporary land architecture
on her forecastle, the stout, thick rubbing strakes under which the
ends of the beam come flush, the good strong rigging (three shrouds
each side with tackles), the thick cable and the anchor secured to a
shelf outside the hull on the starboard side—all these details show
that the sculptor knew what he was depicting, and that the ship which
he copied was a real sea-going vessel as used by genuine sailormen, and
not the inaccurate muddled idea of an imaginative artist. The Pisans,
the Venetians and Genoese were making plenty of money, and they could
afford to send to sea a well-built, well-designed and well-found craft
that would not cause the merchants to feel nervous about their valuable
Eastern goods in the hold.
With a mental picture before us of this slow, beamy, stout ship, built
specially for seaworthiness and capacity to carry goods, rather than
to excel in mobility, we can continue our study, and we shall be able
to learn a great deal of the conditions prevailing in the mediæval
Merchant Service if we examine the legal literature of the time. For
obvious reasons, when there was so much coming and going and so much
money at stake, maritime law began to assert itself from about the
seventh century A.D. onwards, until, about six centuries later, we have
practically every contingency catered for. Between the eighth and the
thirteenth centuries there was very little alteration in the ships,
the navigation and the manner of sea-trading. The big change comes
in the thirteenth century, when the commercial renaissance begins,
which, thanks to these vessels, made the great literary and artistic
renaissance possible, gave to the world the new learning, the golden
age of art, and left behind those wonderful achievements in stone. The
merchant ship, therefore, is the basis of all in life that we respect
and venerate.
By 1255 Venice had its maritime law, though it was the old so-called
Rhodian sea-law,[2] which inspired the regulating of the mediæval
merchant ships all the time. The size of a ship was reckoned not in
tons, but in _amphoræ_ or else in _modii_. An amphora represented
about six gallons, a modios was the equivalent of about two gallons.
Thus a ship with all her tackle was valued at fifty pieces of gold
for every thousand modii of her capacity, though this was further
varied according to her age. Port dues at Ancona, for instance, were
calculated on the valuation of the ship.
Now it is necessary once more to think of the conditions of service
afloat in those days as something quite different from those in our
modern Mercantile Marines, where, in spite of trades unions, the
captain is supreme and the crew simply carry out his orders, and the
passengers have to go wherever he takes them. In those days there was,
comparatively speaking, little knowledge of the sea except what was
obtained by personal experience. Thus a much-travelled merchant who
went backwards and forwards each year to the East would be almost as
competent as the master of the ship. Similarly the crew. The result
was—and it seems very strange to us moderns—that the ship was run not
on a well-disciplined principle, as every one obeying blindly the
master’s orders, but on a communal basis, backed up by the maritime
law. Sometimes, it is true, the sailors were paid fixed wages, in which
case they were also given their food; but frequently they undertook the
voyage on a profit-sharing basis. Thus the master received two shares,
the steersman one and a half, the master’s mate one and a half, the
boatswain one and a half, while each sailor got a whole share, and
the cook half a share. It was therefore to the interest of all to do
everything to get the ship safely from port to port.
The little difference which existed between master, officers, men and
merchants enabled them all in an emergency to offer their opinions
as to weather, pilotage and so on, a decision being arrived at by
the vote of the majority. All this sounds thoroughly unseamanlike to
us, but that is because the seafaring art has long since become so
perfect and systematised, and the division of labour recognised as
a root essential. It was perfectly legal for the merchants, with
their valuable goods on board, to insist on the ship being taken into
a harbour, or to prevent her putting to sea notwithstanding all the
protests of the _naukleros_ or shipmaster. The identity of ignorance
among all on board, with the casting vote in favour of finance, bred
chaos and ill-discipline, that had to be put down with a firm hand
later on, as soon there arose competent navigators and specialists in
seamanship; but the time had not yet come.
No one can possibly envy the life in a merchant ship of the Middle
Ages, with every possible opportunity for friction and the captain
not allowed a free hand. The passenger came on board in fear and
trepidation, bringing with him his own bed and bed-coverings, which,
as happened in 1278, for instance, were stolen from him occasionally.
A proper cabin he could not have, the sleeping space permitted to him
being three cubits long and one cubit wide. Under the Venetian statutes
every merchant or mariner could take on board free one mattress; the
former could also have one trunk, but this was not allowed to his
servant. The passengers brought with them for the voyage all their
food, wine, cooking utensils, and even their firewood, but there were
special precautions taken to guard against fire, which was one of the
eternal terrors in all ships even down to the nineteenth century. Thus
there is a curious regulation preventing passengers in Venetian ships
from frying fish, and another forbidding them to split wood. Water was
supplied free both to passengers and crew, but this was controlled by
measure, for economical reasons.
Arrived on board, the passenger would deposit his gold with the captain
for safe keeping. He lived on biscuits, salt meat, vegetables, cheese,
onions, garlic and vinegar, and there was a Barcelona ordinance of 1258
which compelled the shipowner to keep a supply of food to last fifteen
days, and this was to include bread, wine, salt meat, vegetables, oil
and water. As regards victualling, cargo ships found it easier than
pilgrim ships, for the former could usually hug the shore and put into
the land for provisions. Indeed it was one of the characteristics of
a good pilot that he knew where the ship could obtain fresh drinking
water.
The merchant, with his costly goods, out of which he hoped to make
big profits, found himself in the company of rough mariners who were
lacking the innocence of the carved saints in a cathedral. Thieving
was going on all the time whenever there was a chance. Nowadays you
sometimes hear one seaman describe another as so dishonest that
he would steal the ship’s anchor if he could. It is an obvious
exaggeration, but the expression was perfectly accurate in the times
of which we are now speaking. There was a passage in the maritime law
which dealt with this species of theft. Thus, it runs, if a ship not
under way was robbed of her anchors, and the thief was caught and
confessed, he was to be flogged and to make good twice the damage.
Similarly, if a sailor robbed a merchant or the captain, he was to be
punished, and there are penalties laid down against swearing, blasphemy
and other vices.
In these wooden ships, which often “worked,” and had to go through
heavy weather, the merchant would sometimes find his beautiful Oriental
silks ruined; so there was a regulation that when the water began
to rise in the hold the captain was to let the merchants know at
once, so that they could bring their linens and silks up on deck. But
apart from these risks there were those caused by bad seamanship, the
attacks by pirates at sea or robbers in harbour, the evil men who did
not hesitate to cut the cables of the visiting ship or waylay the
merchants and crew as soon as they came ashore; and there were the
wreckers who deliberately displayed false lights to lure the ship into
destruction—surely one of the lowest of all maritime crimes that could
be devised by the cunning of man.
It was laid down that if a ship “in sail” ran into another ship lying
at anchor, or which had “slackened sail,” and it was during daylight,
the damage was to be borne by the captain, by those on board and by the
cargo. But if the incident occurred at night, the man who “slackened
sail” should have lit a fire or have shouted. Be it remembered that
these merchant ships, though the most seaworthy of any craft then in
existence, were very unhandy and not always under control in narrow
channels. It was impossible for any regulation of man to prevent them
encountering bad weather and even experiencing shipwreck, but by laying
these ships up in November, and not allowing them to sail until the
following March, the authorities were following the wise custom which
had been handed down since classical times, and embodied this practice
in their law. Against the corsair who attacked the ships of his
country’s enemies, and against the pirate who attacked every ship that
came his way, there could be no absolute guarantee unless the ship was
in a convoy escorted by armed galleys.
But these corsairs made no false pretence about their work, and when
in 1165 the Pisans asked Trepedecinus, a well-known Genoese corsair,
where he was going, he merely replied that he was going to capture
them, their goods, their persons and cut off their noses. It was
therefore not unusual to carry in these trading ships some men-at-arms
with swords, shields and helmets. Thus, in a charter-party of 1236
there is laid down that there are to be twenty-five mariners on board,
of whom ten are to be in armour. Quite apart from the convoy system,
it was customary for two or more ships to voyage in company for mutual
protection, the technical term for this being _conservagium_. It was
an arrangement that was mutual also in quite another manner, for if
one of the ships was sunk, the loss was spread among the others in the
consort—a still further instance of the sharing-out principle which was
so common at sea in these times.
Gradually, then, the Mercantile Marine had become indispensable
to trade and to intellectual progress, but it was the growth of
pilgrim traffic which made certain landsmen affluent; for now men
called _cargatores_, or passenger agents, arranged the business
of transporting these devout people across the sea, and therefore
stringent regulations had to be passed to prevent the travellers from
being fleeced. Thus the _cargatores_ were compelled to supply the
pilgrims with good and adequate victuals; and, in order to prevent any
bribery or corruption, they were forbidden to enter into partnership
with the shipowner in regard to the food. Of course this was no small
undertaking at a period of the world’s history when there were no
such things as preserved meats or refrigerating chambers, especially
when the ships were crowded with a lot of sea-sick landsmen who had
never previously beheld the sea. All those who voyaged from Venice or
Marseilles had to carry enough food to last them for fifty days, and
in those rough ships and the Mediterranean climate you can imagine
the state of the food at the end of seven weeks. No wonder that a
pilgrimage was a real act of self-denial!
It was customary in classical times to give names to the Mediterranean
ships, and this survived through the Middle Ages, where we find such
names as _Urso_, _Oliva_, _Aquila_, _Christiana_, _Cidona_, _St.
Blazius_. The Genoese ship went by the name of her shipmaster or owner.
After she had been built and fitted out, the greatest care was taken
to see that she was seaworthy and not overloaded. Thus the internal
arrangements, the ballasting and stowing of goods in the hold were all
supervised. The Venetian statutes kept a very tight control over their
shipping, regulating the places where the cabins were to be put, where
the sail locker should be, where the ship’s tackle was stored, and the
sleeping arrangements both for the merchants and the sailors. No detail
seems to have been too small for State supervision.
The stowing of the cargo in the hold was left to the discretion of
the shipmaster, and there was a kind of Plimsoll mark used in these
Venetian ships; for this is what happened. On the outside of the hull a
mark was put, the ship was then loaded and examined officially before
setting forth on her voyage, and she was not allowed to proceed to sea
if this mark was more than a certain depth below the water-line, this
depth varying according to the ship’s age. If the mark were submerged
too much, a sufficient quantity of cargo had to be taken out until
she came up to her marks, and then the owner was fined. This was the
general rule, but exceptions were made in the case of craft sailing
within the Venetian Gulf or carrying victuals.
The ballasting of the merchant ships was done either by the navigating
officer or else under the direction of a committee composed of this
officer and representatives of owners and merchants. But when once the
vessel had been properly ballasted, it was forbidden to remove any
ballast except for necessity in entering port, or with the consent of
the merchants or committee, though certain heavy articles, such as
lead, were permitted to be substituted for ballast. The heavy goods
were, of course, placed as low as possible, though such articles as
wrought silks and other light goods were allowed to be stowed on the
upper deck, where also food, carpenter’s tools and armour could be
placed.
The owner of the ship was also at times her master, but when the
owner did not himself go to sea and himself appointed the master, he
contracted to carry the passengers and cargo, purchased the tackle and
engaged the seamen. Right down to Elizabethan times the navigation
of the ship was not necessarily carried out by the captain, but
by the pilot, though in the early days of Mediterranean merchant
shipping the masters seem to have been navigators as well, or, more
accurately, pilots. If the ship got wrecked there was, according to an
old constitution of A.D. 380, a practice of obtaining the true facts
of the incident in a manner far more drastic than a modern Board of
Trade Inquiry; for certain members of the crew would be selected as
witnesses, and they were then tortured until they should speak the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.
The communal idea even went to the length of having sometimes several
skippers on the same ship, in order that no one should act without
the consent of the others; and what with the interfering advice and
remonstrances of the merchants and the not too disciplined crews, no
mercantile officer of to-day would find mediæval seafaring endurable.
The mariners could only be kept in check by the drastic law. Thus, if
one of them injured another, the first was to pay his wages to the
other during the whole time that the sick man was out of employment
recovering. Conversely the captain was prevented from maltreating his
men, and had to look after them. For instance, if the ship’s long
boat with some of the crew in it should break adrift from the ship,
the captain had to pay the lost men’s representatives their wages for
a whole year, in those cases where the men were in receipt of wages
instead of a share of the profits.
There were plenty of opportunities for disgruntled mariners to forsake
the ship at the ports of call. In order to check this, the man who
deserted his ship was liable to forfeit double his wages received or
due. The usual custom was to engage the hands from the 1st of March
to the last day of November, and they received their pay on the 1st
of March, the 1st of June and the 1st of September. This did not mean
that the vessel necessarily put to sea at the beginning of March, but
in order to be sure of his men the _naukleros_ hired them before they
were actually required. Having once been engaged, the mariners were
forbidden by statute to leave the city, but at Pisa, when the ship was
about to sail, a crier was sent round collecting the men.
It was not part of their duty to load or unload the cargo: that was
done by the stevedores, but it did fall to them to ballast the ship.
Each mariner, on being engaged, took an oath that he would carry out
his duties, and he had to obey the master. The only occasions on which
he could justifiably quit his ship were if he were made captain of
another ship, or if he had made a vow to go on a pilgrimage to St.
James or the Holy Sepulchre or Rome. On the other hand, he could be
dismissed for theft, quarrelling, repeated disobedience, blasphemy
or debauchery. At Pisa, if a mariner made a disturbance on board,
the captain and other officials could put him into irons, and if he
resisted they could strike him even to the drawing of blood.
No merchant of the twentieth century sending his goods across the seas
would have need to inquire into the inventory or seaworthiness of the
ship. Such things are taken for granted; but even in the carefully
regulated conditions of these old Mediterranean ships, it was customary
for merchants before putting their goods aboard to see that the vessel
was well furnished with sails, yards, anchors and arms, for she should
carry spare yards and sails of canvas (doubtless for hard weather), as
well as other gear. The merchants were also to ascertain that the ship
was water-tight, and the skipper was to fill up the seams with tow. The
Venetian statutes prescribed that a ship should have so many anchors
and ropes of a certain length and thickness. And thus, at last, with
anything from sixteen to forty mariners—according to her size—with her
merchants, their servants, men-at-arms and pilgrims and cooks, the
trading vessel was allowed to go forth.
Such, then, were the conditions under which the Mercantile Marine was
emerging during these interesting years. Like other nations, Venice
began to lose her commercial supremacy soon after the Cape of Good Hope
had been discovered in 1486. The future of the overseas trading was to
be in the hands of Portugal and Spain, then to pass into the control
of the Dutch, the French, and subsequently into British hands, as some
day it may fall under the direction of the United States. But the
important fact to remember all the while is that Venice, Genoa and Pisa
did demonstrate to the world that civilisation, progress, literature,
art, riches, exploration all depended on the merchant ship. Having once
proved the truth of this idea, they have left behind for us in their
contemporary buildings the most striking expressions of the wealth that
is obtained only by means of the sea.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] See _The Rhodian Sea-Law_, edited from MSS. by Walter Ashburner.
Oxford 1909. A scholarly and interesting volume.
CHAPTER IV
THE MERCHANT SHIPS OF THE NORTH
We can desire hardly any better evidence of the existence of a
Mercantile Marine than the fact that a body of laws had to be created
in order to regulate that industry. We have seen that from quite early
times there was in the Mediterranean a sea-law which in course of time
was available for any set of circumstances that might arise in regard
to trading ships.
In like manner there came into being a code of maritime laws for
western Europe, and this was known as the Laws of Oleron. The code was
adopted by Alfonso X in the thirteenth century for the settlement of
disputes in maritime affairs. It was based on the sea-law of Rhodes
already referred to. Now, one effect of the crusade which Richard Cœur
de Lion undertook was that he came into contact with a number of ships
and seamen who had been sent from the island of Oleron to take part in
the crusade. And among the officers who had come with the fleet from
Oleron was one of the justiciaries of the navy.
The nett result was that Richard brought home a roll of these laws,
and ordered them to be observed in English waters. They had been
framed for the benefit of the Merchant Service, and they were drastic.
Thus if a pilot lost the ship and the merchants sustained damage, the
pilot was to make full satisfaction, if he had the means; if he had
no means he was to lose his head. Now, based on these laws of Oleron,
came into being what was known as the “Black Book of the Admiralty,”
which contained the “ancient statutes of the Admiralty, to be observed
both upon ports and havens, the high seas and beyond the seas, which
are engrossed upon vellum in the said book and written in an ancient
hand in the ancient French language,” as a High Court Judge of the
seventeenth century described them.
This so-called “Black Book” contains the most ancient laws of the sea
in force in this country, and continued to be the standard authority
in the Admiralty Court until the end of the eighteenth century, when
it suddenly disappeared, but in 1874 it was accidentally discovered at
the bottom of a chest belonging to a former Registrar of the Admiralty
Court. To-day this book is kept in a glass-topped, locked table in the
room of the President of the Admiralty Court. It was probably called
black to distinguish it from other books of reference, but the late
Sir Douglas Owen, who had examined it about the year 1911, said that
the cover was now very much the colour of a worn-out leather strap. It
measures 9½ inches high and 6¼ inches wide, the leaves being either
thin parchment or a stout tough paper. The first part of the book is
written in archaic French, but it was not all written at one time nor
by one person. In other words, as the Merchant Marine of England grew
in numbers and importance, as the trade with the continent got bigger,
so the English maritime law kept up with the progress. The first part
of the “Black Book” belongs to the time of Edward III or Richard II,
the latter part to the time between Henry IV and Henry VI. Thus, part
of the book shows that the English Mercantile Marine was of sufficient
size and importance in the period between 1327 and 1351 to necessitate
a body of laws.
In character the ships of Northern waters were based on those of the
Norsemen—that is to say, they were double-ended, long, and propelled by
one large square-sail, or with oars when necessary. As time went on,
these craft became beamier, and approximated to the cargo ships of the
Mediterranean, the twofold objects aimed at being seaworthiness and
capacity for carrying as much as possible in their holds. But there
is this important fact to bear in mind, and its value can hardly be
exaggerated, as we shall presently find. The North Sea has from the
earliest records until the present day been the home of the herring,
and on the herring the nations of the North have prospered, built their
Mercantile Marines, grown rich, created their navies and expanded
commercially. The fishing fleets have only to put to sea and they can
extract silver fortunes—it is, so to speak, money for nothing, or for
very little. That is the broad, general statement, though in practice
it is modified by the migrations of the herring, which did actually
alter the trend of history.
As far back as the third century the inhabitants of the Hebrides were
living on fish and milk, but ignorant of the cultivation of grain, and
even in the ninth century the Dutch came to Scotland to buy salted
fish. In the tenth century the Norwegians were fishing with their
herring-nets near Christiania, and off the East Anglian coast our own
fishermen were pursuing the industry on a large scale. Before William
the Conqueror arrived, Beccles, then a fishing town (but now inland
on the banks of a river), paid as rent to St. Edmund’s Abbey as
much as 30,000 herrings. In France by 1030 the herring-fishing was a
well-established occupation, and there were salt works near Dieppe for
preserving the catches. During the twelfth century our fishermen found
herrings very plentiful off the Tyne. Further north the English, Scotch
and Belgic fishermen were getting the herring near May Island off the
Firth of Forth, and in this same period the herring was being first
fished for in the Meuse. The Dutch were sending out small vessels to
use their nets in the North Sea, then later on packing the fish into
barrels, preserving them by cleaning their insides and thus beginning
to acquire wealth from the harvest of the sea.
Thus the North Sea fisheries were to build up the Mercantile Marines of
the North. We were exporting herrings, wool, butter, cheese and cattle
to the continent via the Rhine, and already during the thirteenth
century a big Lorraine fleet, carrying cargoes of wine, used to arrive
annually in England; but it was the impetus given by the herring that
caused the north European countries to develop the sea instinct. The
fishing industry developed shipbuilding, created a great seamanhood,
spread the fascination of the sea as a career, and thus handed down
from century to century a great and wonderful school, from which in
Tudor times were to be obtained the crews who ventured forth with Drake
and others. You cannot suddenly bring into being this seafaring body,
as you can collect armies. And had it not been that for hundreds of
years the Englishmen had been out fishing, there would have been no
expansion of England either commercially or politically. The history of
the world would, indeed, have to be rewritten.
By the time of Edward III the fishing had become so important to this
country that a law was passed forbidding any fisherman to give up his
trade; but, in return for this, fishermen and mariners were exempt from
serving in any capacity other than that to which they had been bred.
By the fourteenth century there were literally thousands of vessels,
each having at least six persons on board, fishing for herrings between
Denmark and Norway, and more than 300,000 people were in one way or
another engaged in the industry. In five days no fewer than sixty
foreign ships during one week came into Great Yarmouth for these fish.
Thus, side by side with our fishermen there was growing up a carrying
trade, herrings and woollen cloth being regularly exported to the
continent. By the fifteenth century ships from the British Isles,
France, Flanders, Zeeland, Holland and Germany with Scottish herrings
used to sail to the Mediterranean to sell the fish for the faithful
during Lent.
Throughout the Middle Ages the herring-fishing of the North Sea was far
and away the most important of western Europe, especially off Scotland,
Sweden and Norfolk, whither the Dutchmen came both to use their nets
and to buy. The trade in salted and smoked herrings helped to make the
wealth of the Hanseatic and Dutch towns. And it is here that we find,
in the Hanseatic League, a force which corresponds to that of Venice,
Pisa and Genoa in the south; for in developing overseas trade it
encouraged the ship and seafaring.
The word “hansa” signifies a guild or association, and the Hanseatic
League was an association of towns for the purposes of trade, Bergen,
London and Bruges being its principal foreign markets in the North Sea.
From the twelfth to the sixteenth century this trading league existed,
and, like Venice, had its rise to pre-eminence and then gradually
lost its supremacy. And, like Venice, too, the Hanseatic League kept
a tight hand over its merchant ships. Thus as far back as 1391 there
was an ordinance by the Diet that no merchant should sail from a North
Sea to a Baltic port, or vice versa, between Martinmas and Candlemas,
and the only exceptions were that ships carrying beer and herrings
might sail as late as St. Nicholas Day, December 6. For centuries a
merchant had signified a townsman, but when, from the beginning of the
twelfth century, the herring suddenly arrived in great shoals in the
Baltic, the inland dwellers of Germany came down to the sea, ousted
the Slav and thus began to get rich. The movements and migrations of
the herring are little more understood nowadays than they were then,
but it was sufficient for the Hanseatics that this silvery wealth had
arrived. Thus Kolberg became a famous emporium for salted herrings, and
this fishing industry was responsible for the Hansa towns obtaining so
much of their riches and power. And so it went on until, in 1425, the
erratic herring decided to forsake the Baltic and spawn in the waters
of the North Sea. This at once took away from the Hanseatics a large
portion of their means to wealth, though they were still busy with
their carrying trade. But what is one country’s loss may be another’s
gain, and it was so with the herring.
For from the Baltic the herring had moved down to the Dutch coast, and
so the Netherlands found themselves with the good fortune of a silver
mine outside their own doors. Riches were there for the asking, and
they wisely availed themselves of the opportunity. They built more
ships, and the whole waterside went forth in clumsy, seaworthy craft,
and thus gradually the fishermen laid the foundation-stone of the Dutch
nation. It is an old saying that Amsterdam was built upon herrings; and
as the Venetian palaces were built on Eastern pepper and silks, so the
Northern capital arose out of the efforts on sea. It is impossible to
appreciate all that the herring-fishery has meant to Holland until one
has been through all the picture galleries in the Low Countries and
explored its harbours. In the former you find the herring busses riding
to their nets as the subject of any number of paintings, for the reason
that it was the most important aspect of Dutch livelihood; and around
the quays to-day you have only to notice the fine architecture in order
to see the relics of a wealth that came and passed away by means of the
sea high-road.
There is nothing like trade for the encouragement of shipping, but it
was not until the end of the thirteenth century that the inland towns
of the continent required for their trade the highway of the ocean, and
thus the ports became important and the demand for shipping increased.
One of the most important of the Hanseatic sea trade routes was from
Bruges to northern Russia, whither hundreds of craft sailed every year,
owned by the Baltic merchants. And it was not until the fifteenth
century that the Dutchmen, Zeelanders and Frisians seriously competed
with the Hanseatics, for the latter was a very close corporation, whose
organisation was kept secret, and its ban was regal in its effect.
By its decree no German merchant was allowed to go into partnership
with an Englishman, Fleming or Russian, and the result was that for
centuries our shipping was kept out of the Baltic. All this time the
Hanseatic trade was doing a great deal to encourage its own shipping,
for there were needed many craft and seamen to carry eastwards from
Germany to Russia the produce of the looms and the breweries, returning
with furs, wax, skins, tallow and fat. Similarly the shipping went
across to Sweden to fetch the copper and iron, while to Bruges and
London this Russian and Swedish produce was brought for distribution.
As in the cargo ships of the Mediterranean, so here in the north, the
merchants accompanied their wares “over sea and sand.” Some of them
would mutually arrange to charter a ship, and in order to encourage the
captain to get the goods safely across the sea, they would give him an
interest in the sales. Otherwise, as soon as pirates hove into sight he
might feel inclined to hurl the goods overboard, and a similar desire
was thus checked in the case of the ship labouring in bad weather.
Piracy in the English Channel, Irish Sea, North Sea and the Baltic went
on merrily during the Middle Ages, and played havoc with the merchant
ship, though, as in the south, this kind of activity was less a crime
than a specialised form of seafaring. In the Cinque Ports dwelt a class
of seamen commissioned, according to Matthew of Paris, to plunder all
merchant ships of any nationality other than English as they passed up
and down the Channel; so in the thirteenth century we find the Scotch,
Irish, Welsh and French all fitting out vessels to cruise about in
readiness for a cargo ship full of valuable goods.
The English Channel and the North Sea thus became full of dangers, and
no merchant ship could put to sea without grave risk of capture. One
nationality was as bad as another, and a kind of international vendetta
went on in revenge for the losses by piracy. It became, indeed, a
matter of high politics, far too serious to be ignored, so that the
kings of England at various dates had to enter into negotiations with
the foreign authorities. Thus at the beginning of the fifteenth century
the Chancellor of England demanded from the Master-General of Prussia
full restitution and recompense for “sundry piracies and molestations
offered of late upon the sea.” During the next reign Henry IV, writing
to the same personage, admitted that both English and Prussian
merchants had suffered by these pirates “roving up and downe the sea.”
It was finally agreed that English merchant ships should be allowed
to enter Prussian ports unmolested, and that if Prussian cargoes were
captured in the North Sea by English pirates, and this merchandise
was brought into an English port, the “governour” of the port, if he
suspected piracy, was to have such goods taken out and put ashore in
safe keeping. And between this same Henry and the Hanseatic towns a
similar agreement was made which bound the cities of Lubeck, Bremen,
Hamburg and others to recompense the injured parties “for all injuries,
damages, grievances, and drownings or manslaughters” done and committed
by the pirates.
The following incidents well illustrate the risks which these
merchantmen ran whilst pursuing their calling. About Eastertide in the
year 1394 the merchant ship _Godezere_, owned by four Englishmen, set
out from the Tyne for Prussia, loaded with a cargo of woollen cloth
and red wine. She was a 200-ton ship, her value with that of her sails
and tackle amounting to £400; her cargo, plus certain sums of money
on board, aggregating 200 marks. In the North Sea she encountered a
Hanseatic ship who gave the English craft such a hot time that the
_Godezere_ was captured, two of her crew slain, and the rest of them
were imprisoned for three years. In the same year the Hanseatic pirates
also attacked the Hull ship named the _Shipper Berline of Prussia_,
belonging to a Richard Horuse, and from her they took away goods to the
value of 160 nobles. Next year, off the coast of Norway, they molested
a ship called the _John Tutteburie_, and relieved her of 476 nobles
worth of cargo. A year later still, these Hanseatic pirates captured
the Hull ship _Cogge_, belonging to one William Terry, and took £200
worth of woollen cloth as well. The pirates were no respecters of ships
so long as valuable goods were being taken across the North Sea, for
Dutch, Zeeland and English merchantmen and fishing craft were all made
to suffer. If the merchants and crew were not killed, they were thrown
into prison and not allowed their liberty until ransom was paid, so
altogether the trading ship had quite as exciting a time in the north
as in the southern sea.
But it was just as bad in the Baltic, where the pirates found it such a
profitable business that they formed themselves into a corporation, and
became such a serious and powerful force that in 1392 they were able
to burn down Bergen and take the bishop prisoner. This much is to be
said for them: they had a sense of chivalry, and on occasions actually
gave back the empty ships to merchants after removing the cargoes,
and wished them a happy return with fresh and fuller freights. But so
mighty a scourge did these sea-raiders become that for a time they put
a stop to all fishing. In the spring of 1394 these lawless Hanseatics
sailed with quite a large fleet to the town of Norbern in Norway, took
the place by assault, captured all the merchants, together with their
goods, burnt their houses and put their persons up to ransom.
Matters had now reached a crisis. For three years all fishing had been
stopped and these rovers had made maritime life impossible, so in
1394, by means of a tax, the Hanseatic League got together a fleet of
thirty-five large ships and 3000 men, and by this means broke the power
of this pirate confederation—for a time; for the scourge continued for
years after. It was a fine life for those who had run through their
money and desired adventure, and it attracted men of noble birth who
had gambled and drunk away their fortunes. Of these none was more
notorious than Stertebeker, who took part in almost every instance of
North Sea piracy at this time. Hamburg having denied to this reprobate
his knightly armour and forbidden him the city precincts, he threw in
his lot with the notorious pirates known as the Victual Brothers, whose
leader was Godeke Michelson.
There was no limit to the depredations of this band. On one occasion
they attacked a ship in the North Sea named the _Dogger_, which was
lying at anchor while the crew were fishing. These Hanseatics took
away their fish, beat and wounded both master and crew, and owing to
the damage done lost the _Dogger_ a whole year’s fishing. Nor did the
daring of the pirates confine itself to the Baltic and North Sea:
they even raided the coast of Spain. Stertebeker was one of those
heavy-drinking Germans who had a curious method of dealing with his
prisoners; for if among them he found a poor, strong man he would test
the latter’s powers by resort to drinking. Stertebeker, whose own mark
consisted of two reversed goblets in a cathedral church, would cause
his own goblet to be filled with wine and handed to the prisoner. If
the latter could empty it at one gulp, he was a man after Stertebeker’s
heart, and was accepted as a comrade, otherwise he was dismissed.
But there came a time when this terror to the merchant ships of all
nations had reached the limit. In the year 1422 the Hanseatic League
sent a fleet under Simon of Utrecht to fall upon the pirates, and
having come out from Hamburg, Simon found the enemy one evening lying
off Heligoland. So near did the Hamburg fleet get to them that one
daring fisherman was able to pour molten lead on the rudders of certain
of the pirate ships, and this loosened the rudders and rendered the
ships uncontrollable. On the following day the battle began, and went
on for three days and nights, but in the end Stertebeker was beaten.
He and seventy of his comrades were captured and carried in triumph to
Hamburg, where they were all condemned to death and executed, to the
great relief of the mercantile mariners. The rest of the pirates had
fled, or been killed or thrown into the sea, and in the captured ships
were found much linen and wax and cloth, which had been ill gotten from
unfortunate craft. But when the Hamburgers rummaged the ships all the
valuable metals they could find were a few goblets: until a carpenter
broke the mainmast, which was then found to be hollow, and full of
molten gold. However, this conveniently indemnified the merchants, and
a golden crown was made and placed on the spire of St. Nicholas church,
Hamburg. Stertebeker’s friend and accomplice, Michelson, was still at
large, but Simon went after him, got him, and eighty pirates lost their
heads.
CHAPTER V
THE GROWTH OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE
Chaucer, who flourished in the fourteenth century, has left us a
description of a merchant “shipman” of his time. He refers to him as
being a West-countryman living, “for aught I woot,” at Dartmouth, who
wore a gown of coarse cloth extending to the knee, and had a dagger
hanging on a lanyard. The hot summer had tanned his face brown, and
Chaucer describes him as a good fellow, who had drawn many a draught
of wine while the “chapman” (or merchant) was asleep. No man had such
skill in reckoning his tides, streams, dangers; and in his knowledge
of harbours, the state of the moon and pilotage, there was no such man
between Hull and Carthage.
“Hardy he was, and wys to undertake:
With many a tempest hadde his berd been shake.
He knew wel alle the havenes, as they were,
From Gootlond to the cape of Finistere,
And every cryke in Britayne and in Spayne:
His barge y-cleped was the Maudelayne.”
From the mere fact that Chaucer said as much as he did, it is clear
enough that English merchant ships at this time were trading up and
down Europe between Sweden and the Spanish coast, and that as a regular
thing. And some of these seamen were now also navigators. Chaucer, who
died in the year 1400, has left behind a treatise on the astrolabe by
which a mariner could “knowe the altitude of the sonne, or of other
celestial bodies.” An astrolabe was the ancestor of the sextant, an
instrument which had been used by the Arabs for long years before it
was used by the Christian seamen of the Mediterranean or the North.
As far back as the eighth century a learned Rabbi named Messahala had
written a treatise on the astrolabe, and it was chiefly from that
author that Chaucer derived his knowledge on the subject. During the
early Tudor period the cross-staff began to supersede the astrolabe.
The growth of the English Mercantile Marine in the fourteenth century,
and the friction which occurred between these ships and the vessels
belonging to Norway, Prussia, Flanders, Scotland, Spain and Genoa, led
to the assertion by Edward III that his royal progenitors had been
lords of the English sea “on every side,” and in 1344 he had coined a
gold noble whereon he was represented standing in a ship crowned, with
sword and shield, emblematic of his sovereignty of the seas. It was a
statesmanlike attempt on behalf of the commercial ships to make the
sea a peaceful highway, when for so long it had been such a dangerous
thoroughfare. It had its counterpart in the Mediterranean; for the
raids by the Saracens had caused the Pisans to exercise the rights of
commercial and naval supremacy on the west coast of Italy; and in 1138
the Genoese had exercised a similar authority in the Gulf of Lyons.
Similarly Venice had claimed sovereignty over the whole of the Adriatic
in the thirteenth century, though prior to that it had exacted a toll
from vessels passing through that sea.
England, too, had her pilgrim trade to Santiago de Compostela,
thirty-three miles south of Corunna, where the shrine of St. James
caused these travellers to cross the Bay of Biscay to Spain. By the
fifteenth century this transportation of pilgrims had become a regular
trade, and in 1434 Henry VI granted a licence to carry no fewer than
2433 such enthusiasts. Indeed the earliest English sea song is that
which describes the life on board one of these pilgrim ships. The
manuscript is in the Trinity College Library, Cambridge, and it begins
by saying that “men may leve all gamys, that saylen to Seynt Jamys,”
for when these people have joined the ship at Sandwich, Winchelsea,
Bristol or wherever it may be, their hearts soon begin to fail, “for
som ar lyke to cowgh and grone, or hit be full mydnyght.” The cook is
ordered to get food ready, but the pilgrims have “no lust” for eating,
but lie “with they bowlys fast them by” and complaining that their
heads would “cleave in three”—“splitting,” as the modern martyr to
sea-sickness expresses it. Then the carpenter comes along and with his
gear makes small cabins for the unhappy passengers to sleep in. A sack
of straw formed the mattress, and in some cases the pilgrims found they
had to sleep near the pump and bilge-water in the reeking hold. “A man
were as good to be dede, as smell thereof the stynk.” For there are few
odours more objectionable than the bilge-stench of an aged ship, and in
those days, when refuse was thrown into the hold and there was little
idea of sanitation, a pilgrim’s voyage from England to Spain, across
the boisterous Bay, could not have been more pleasant than from Venice
to the Syrian shore.
In this poem just quoted it is interesting to notice, also, the life
on board the merchant ship as regards the mariners. We see the master
at once ordering his “shyp-men” to stand by the mast and handle their
tackle. Then, with the old expression of the sea (still surviving in
sailing merchant vessels to-day), “Ho! Hissa,” they hoist away, whilst
one man reprimands another for standing too close to his neighbour to
allow him room to haul. Then one or two boys go up aloft, out on the
yard, and unfurl the square-sail, while the rest of the crew haul aft
the sheets. The captain then orders the boatswain to stow the ship’s
boat, and next “haul the bowline,” the ship being now on a wind; but
presently “veers the sheet” to allow her to run before the breeze. The
steersman is sent to the helm and told to sail no nearer to the wind,
after which the master calls the steward to bring him a pot of beer,
which is promised “with good chere.” It is now time to haul in the
brails of the yard, and one of the crew is admonished for not hauling;
and then see “howe well owre good shyp sayles.” The steward is told
to get food ready “and tary not so long,” whilst the ship’s pessimist
comes and prophesies a storm or squall. He is promptly told to hold his
“pese” and not to interfere.
“Then commeth oure owner lyke a lorde,
And speketh many a royall worde,
And dresseth hym to the hygh borde
To see all thyng be well.”
Thus, with the demand for shipping to carry cargo and pilgrims across
the open sea, there was every chance given to the Mercantile Marine,
and by the fifteenth century the single-masted ship had begun to be
displaced by the three-master, for the reason that the merchantman
was becoming bigger, and it was necessary to split the sails up for
ease in handling. Thus the big cargo ship now has a small square
foresail on her foremast, a big square mainsail on her mainmast,
and a triangular lateen sail on the mizzen-mast. The mere fact that
the last-mentioned, characteristic, Mediterranean sail was added
to northern ships during the fifteenth century, is evidence of the
influence which the Portuguese and Spanish ships were having on our
distant-voyaging vessels. Sea transportation was becoming the rule, and
no longer the exception; trade overseas was increasing; merchants and
seamen were fast becoming imbued with new ideas seen in strange lands,
and in fact the world was beginning to awake.
The biggest of the ships carried a main topsail, and by this time the
rudder had been shifted from the quarter to aft, as it is to-day.
The hull is in a transition state, still feeling the influence of
the Viking type, but not yet a wholesome creature. The forecastle,
sterncastle and main topmast castle are still there, but they have
become amalgamated with the general design of the hull rather than
being mere additional platforms. There is a contemporary manuscript
which shows such craft under way, at anchor, and even being towed out
of harbour by the ship’s boat against a head wind, past a flaming
beacon which marks a promontory. And even at this time there were such
things as pilots’ guides for the coasts of England and Wales, as well
as sailing directions for the Bay of Biscay.
But we must turn our attention south to watch what was going on in
the Mediterranean. Briefly this is what had happened. Already in the
thirteenth century merchant ships had become more enterprising, for
about the year 1270 Malocello had reached the Canary Isles, and in
1281, Vivaldi had set forth from Genoa to find the East Indies via
the west coast of Africa, but failed. For you must remember that
during the latter part of the twelfth century the compass, crude and
inaccurate, yet of immense utility, had been introduced into Europe
from the East. Then comes into our story that great man Prince Henry
the Navigator, son of the King of Portugal, and nephew of Henry IV of
England. Henry devoted his life to developing the science and art of
navigation, creating an observatory and nautical school at Sagres,
near Cape St. Vincent, and doing all he possibly could to encourage
maritime discovery. The result of this was that the Portuguese became
great sea-travellers, big shipowners and expanded in commerce and
colonies. Henry the Navigator was born in 1394 and died in 1460, and to
his foresight, organisation and enthusiastic intellect can be traced
the rapid and marvellous Portuguese achievements which followed at
sea. Thus in 1442 Madeira and the Azores had been discovered in the
Atlantic, trade with Africa materially increased, especially on the
west coast, and the traffic in black slaves become very profitable.
Then in 1486 the Cape of Good Hope was rounded and the sea route at
last opened to the East Indies, instead of the long and perilous
overland route to the Levant which had been used always up till
now. In 1498 Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon to Calicut, and two
years later the Portuguese had landed in Brazil. Thus by the dawn
of the sixteenth century Portugal had reached a wonderful height of
prosperity. The great Eastern trade was in her hands; Ceylon, the Sunda
Islands, Malacca and Ormuz in the Persian Gulf were hers; and all this
pre-eminence had been won by studying the problems of the sea and then
applying that knowledge in ships manned by practical navigators and
sailors.
Portugal had risen up by the twelfth century as a separate kingdom, and
Spain had been passing through a period of complete anarchy, but on
the death of the Spanish Henry IV, Isabel and Ferdinand had ascended
the throne of Castile, and then law and order were restored, the last
Moorish stronghold was captured in 1492, and a few months later the
Genoese sailor Columbus, under the patronage of Ferdinand and Isabella,
was allowed to set forth on his historic voyage which discovered the
West Indies. He returned home, went across the Atlantic again in 1493
and discovered Dominica; then made his third voyage, in which he
discovered the mainland of South America in 1498, and finally, on his
last voyage, explored the southern shore of the Mexican Gulf.
With the discovery of a sea-route both to the East and West Indies,
the whole future of the Mercantile Marine was altered. Instead of
carrying merchandise and pilgrims across Europe, there came the demand
for great ocean-going vessels that could carry home large quantities
of rich produce, that would make the European markets surprised when
they beheld these goods. Thus the Portuguese and Spaniards, like
the Venetians and Genoese, began to amass great wealth from their
merchant ships. Noble caracks were built, more and more men embarked
on a seafaring career, the art of navigation received much more
careful study, and mercantile maritime supremacy passed to the Iberian
peninsula. Thus the work of great shipbuilders and sea-carriers,
discoverers, colonisers and traders had for a time passed into other
hands.
But success in one party always breeds jealousy in another: indeed,
if you examine the causes of all the great wars in history, or look
into the reasons for most private quarrels, you will find usually
that they come under the heading either of commercial jealousy or
religious intolerance. And when, as was the case in the sixteenth
century, you have both these factors united, you have the maximum of
intense feeling. The English seamen, perfectly naturally, began to be
jealous and envious of the lectureships and instruction which were
being given to these southern seamen. At Seville Charles V had founded
a lectureship on navigation in the sixteenth century. In England Henry
VIII founded three guilds, at Deptford-on-Thames, Kingston-on-Hull
and Newcastle-on-Tyne, for the same purpose, and Edward VI selected
Sebastian Cabot to be Grand Pilot of England. Henry VII encouraged
his shipbuilders by giving them a bounty on the tonnage built, and
in Henry VIII’s reign dockyards were established at Woolwich, Erith
and Deptford, in addition to Portsmouth. Books on the sea arts began
to be written in English, so that by the time the full force of the
commercial and religious hatred of the Spanish and Portuguese was
let loose, the English mercantile mariners were something more than
mere coastal seamen. From their fishing they had gradually become
cross-Channel carriers; from this they had risen to the ability to
trade regularly with Spain, with an occasional voyage even to the
Mediterranean; but now they were qualified by their ambition and
their greater knowledge to go wherever the sea existed. And thus we
get Drake going all the way round the world; the many voyages across
the Atlantic to the West Indies; the fights with the Spanish treasure
ships; the capture of the _Madre de Dios_ and _San Felipe_, thus
discovering the long-kept secrets of the sea-route to India. From the
captured caracks and galleons which had been built in the Iberian
peninsula, the English shipwright was able to enlarge his ideas and
to learn how to build real ocean-going craft bigger than most of the
Elizabethan ships. The introduction of cannon had been an additional
reason for making the ship a much stouter, loftier and more formidable
creature. Thus length, and beam, and draught increased; larger crews
and more officers were needed, and as each expedition came home with
strange products, merchant adventurers combined to fit out other
expeditions to inaugurate trade even in such remote spots as had not
yet seen a white man.
And never a ship came home from her voyage without adding some valuable
information in regard to trade or geography or navigation or pilotage.
You have only to read the travels in Hakluyt, Purchase and elsewhere
to see how keen these Elizabethans were not to omit a single piece
of knowledge that would be useful for future voyages. They had been
able, almost suddenly, to realise that, given pluck, determination,
enterprise and endurance, the treasures of the world were theirs. They
could follow the sea for a few long voyages and then return to build
themselves comfortable mansions in Devonshire. And inasmuch as nothing
succeeds like success, every time the crew came home and spread the
wonderful tales of their experiences and showed the valuables they had
managed to obtain, other men were anxious to go forth and do likewise.
Nobles and gentlemen and city magnates invested heavily in these
trading voyages, selected the ablest seamen, and thus, incidentally,
were helping to build up the Mercantile Marine on a grand scale.
Before Hawkins engaged in his trans-Atlantic voyages he was a Plymouth
shipowner accustomed to sail to the ports of Spain and the Canary
Islands with trade. At the Canaries he learns a good deal about the
West Indies, then goes further south to the west coast of Africa,
begins transporting niggers thence to America, returns to England with
plenty of money, and sets every one in the west of England talking and
anxious to have a share in this great new game. His relative, Francis
Drake, owner of a small brigantine in which coastal trading has been
carried on, is fired by Hawkins’ success, and accompanies him on one
of his expeditions. Young Francis has learnt his seamanship in a rough
school, having made friends with a shipmaster trading to the Channel
ports and gone to sea with him, and thus acquired his knowledge, until
finally the shipmaster dies and leaves him the brigantine in his will.
Several years of coastal work had followed, Drake had acquired both
money and reputation, and in the end could not resist selling the
coaster and buying the brigantine _Judith_, fifty tons, and going with
his relative across the Atlantic.
What followed? Every time the English seamen came back with terrible
yarns concerning the treachery of the Portuguese and Spaniards, every
time the stories of the gallant fights were told, every time the
jewels and plate and pearls were seen and handled, the West countrymen
were stirred to their very souls. Religious and commercial jealousy,
racial hatred and the love of adventure, combined with the possibility
of becoming rich—all this created such a fire of enthusiasm that
the English Mercantile Marine was bound to increase in numbers and
aspirations. The moderate ambitions of the Middle Ages had passed away
for ever: the dawn of a new order of things had now already come.
CHAPTER VI
THE MERCANTILE MARINE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
By the middle of the fourteenth century the merchant ships had begun to
outgrow mediævalism; by the sixteenth they were able to go to windward
and to keep the sea for months on end. Thus, vessels had at last
begun to enjoy the freedom of the seas and to be independent of the
shore. It was a great achievement, considering how limited in size and
seaworthiness ships had been, and how limited in knowledge mariners had
remained until they had passed through the Middle Ages and emerged into
the clear, bright light of science.
Men were getting away from convention and thinking for themselves,
but some of the old habits were dying very slowly. One very antique
custom was that of waits attending seafaring men. As late as 1466,
and probably even after, at the Cinque Ports musicians with fifes
and trumpets paraded the town and announced which way the wind was
blowing, so that merchant ships could put to sea if the wind was fair
for them. The use of the ship’s bell had been introduced into Tudor
ships before the end of the fifteenth century, for Henry VII’s famous
_Grâce Dieu_ in 1485 included this in her inventory, and the _Regent_
in 1495 had two “wache belles.” In a volume printed at the beginning
of the sixteenth century, showing a typical merchant ship of the time,
with mast, square-sails, and castles from which to attack pirates and
other enemies, the artist has actually shown, in a rather conventional,
but none the less interesting, manner the skipper at the helm and the
merchants with their bales of goods in the vessel; but the pictorial
information of these early craft is so slight, and landsmen artists
dealing with technical marine subjects were so very inaccurate, that it
is only by most diligent and careful research that a nautical student
who understands the ways of a ship can follow the development of the
merchant craft through to the seventeenth century.
Seamen have very rarely been good authors, until we come to
modern times; and writers have usually been unacquainted with the
technicalities of seafaring. The difficulty, therefore, has been great.
The only solution is to regard the efforts of ancient artists and
authors critically with the eyes of a seaman, and to make allowances.
With this concession, realising what a ship can do and what she never
could be asked to do; realising also that the artist’s intention was
not so much to bequeath to posterity an accurately rigged ship as to
depict an idea—as, for instance, the progress of a saint, in which
a ship appeared incidentally—we can find all these quaint artistic
efforts worth examining, and yielding up information. So it is with the
writers. Even that fifteenth century French humorist Rabelais helps
us if we allow for his ignorance of seafaring matters. So long as a
man writes of what he actually saw with his own eyes, and not what
he imagined, we have valuable and illuminative truth. Rabelais was
no seaman, but his description of the handling of the ship in a gale
is worth preserving. At the approach of bad weather we see the pilot
shortening sail. The terrified Panurge exclaims with horror that the
bitts are broken, the tackle is in pieces, the timbers are splitting,
the mast dipping into the sea up to the truck. His is the attitude
of the “all-is-lost” landsman who exists through all the ages of the
merchant ship. Thus he goes on: “Alas! alas! where are our topsails?
All is lost, by God! Our topmast is under water. Alas! to whom will
this wreck belong? Friends, put me here behind one of these bulkheads.
Lads, your top-crane has fallen.” He hears the rudder-pintle creaking.
“Is it broken?” Eventually the pilot heaves-to under her main-course,
but later the weather moderates so that the ship can resume her voyage.
“To the main topsail,” rings out an order. “Hoist! hoist! To the
main-mizzen topsail. The rope to the capstan. Heave! heave! heave!
Hands to the halyards. Hoist! hoist! Clear away the tacks. Clear away
the sheets. Clear away the bowlines. Port tack. Down helm. Haul taut
starboard sheet. Luff. Full and by. Up helm. (“Up, it is,” replied
the sailors.) Keep her going. Head for the harbour-mouth.” Thus, with
the steering tackles manned, and the ship sailing close-hauled on the
port tack, the pilot makes the helmsman keep her out of the wind and
straight for their haven.[3]
But those who know their Hakluyt well, and take the trouble to read
those wondrous voyages with imagination, are richly rewarded by the
interesting side-lights thrown on the sixteenth-century seamanship
in the merchant craft. Among the instructions “for the direction of
the intended voyage for Cathay,” issued by Sebastian Cabot in 1553,
the “captain-general,” “pilot major,” masters, merchants and other
officers are first exhorted to be “knit and accorded in unitie, love,
conformitie and obedience.” Every mariner and passenger took an oath to
be obedient to the captain-general, and to every captain and master of
his ship. But even as late as the reign of Edward VI, the old custom
of the sea, which we have seen in the Mediterranean, prevailed. The
communal idea was not yet extinct.
“Item,” runs the fifth instruction, “all courses in Navigation to be
set and kept, by the advice of the Captaine, Pilot Major, masters,
& masters’ mates, with the assents of the counsailers and the most
number of them, and in voyces uniformely agreeing in one to prevaile,
and take place, so that the Captaine generall, shall in all counsailes
and assemblies have a double voyce.” The fleet was ordered to keep
together, the merchants “and other skilful persons in writing, shal
daily write, describe, and put in memorie the Navigation of every
day and night, with the points, and observation of the lands, tides,
elements, altitude of the sunne, course of the moon and starres, and
the same so noted by the order of the Master and pilot of every ship
to be put in writing, the captaine generall assembling the masters
together once every weeke (if winde and weather shal serve) to conferre
all the observations, and notes of the said ships, to the intent it may
appeare wherein the notes do agree, and wherein they dissent, and upon
good debatement, deliberation, and conclusion determined, to put the
same into a common leger, to remain of record for the company: the like
order to be kept in proportioning of the Cardes, Astrolabes, and other
instruments prepared for the voyage, at the charge of the companie.”
Thus the merchants, having financed the voyage, still had a
considerable say in the matter. The steward and cook of every ship
had to render a weekly account of the flesh, fish, biscuit, meat,
bread, beer, wine, oil and vinegar consumed. If an officer or seaman
were found inefficient, he could be put ashore anywhere “within the
king’s Majesties realme & dominion.” In order to keep discipline over
the crew—many of them the “bad hats” of the port from which the ships
had sailed—they were forbidden blasphemy, “ribaldrie, filthy tales or
ungodly talke, neither dicing, carding, tabling, nor other divelish
games to be frequented, whereby ensueth not onely povertie to the
players, but also strife, variance, brauling, fighting, and oftentimes
murther.” Every morning and evening, service was to be read in the
flagship by “the minister,” and in the other ships by the merchant or
some other learned person. “No liquor to be spilt on the balast, nor
filthines to be left within boord; the cook room, and all other places
to be kept cleane, for the better health of the companie.”
The merchants were to look after the “liveries in apparel” given to the
mariners, which were not to be worn except by order of the captain. And
there was also a “slop-chest,” taken care of by the merchants, from
which a seaman could obtain “any necessarie furniture of apparel for
his body, and conservation of his health at such reasonable price as
the same cost, without any game to be exacted by the marchants.” Nor
could the merchants exhibit for sale any of their goods to foreigners
without consent of the captains and other officers.
In this expedition for the purpose of trading there were three ships,
and from these details we have a fair idea of the way the pick of the
Mercantile Marine was being conducted on a grand scale, as contrasted
with the usual small voyages around the British Isles, or across the
North Sea, English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. Such an expedition
as the one we are considering aimed at big things: the opening up of
a new trade route and fresh markets. Thus there were three ships in
this venture, the 120-ton _Bona Esperanza_, which was the flagship;
the 160-ton _Edward Bonaventure_; and the 90-ton _Bona Confidentia_.
In the first was Sir Hugh Willoughby, captain-general of the squadron,
or, as they called it, the fleet. In that same ship were the master,
his mate and six merchants, together with the master gunner, boatswain,
boatswain’s mate, four quartermasters and their four mates, two
carpenters, a purser, a cook and his mate, two surgeons and others.
Two men were landed at Harwich for sickness, and one other was ducked
at the yard-arm “for pickerie,” and then discharged. The _Edward
Bonaventure_ carried Richard Chancellor as captain and pilot major of
the fleet, a master, his mate, two merchants, a minister, officers and
mariners. The little _Bona Confidentia_ carried only a master, his
mate, three merchants, as well as the usual officers and mariners. Each
of these three ships had a pinnace and a boat. We know that these ships
could never lie nearer than seven points from the wind by the statement
that “the wind veared to the West, so that we could lie but North and
by West.” Not having charts of the strange unexplored harbours and
havens, the ship, on approaching the land, used to send her pinnace
ahead to find an anchorage, and then the big craft could follow in.
They used their lead for sounding, and consulted the globe, which was
the only knowledge of geography of distant countries possessed in many
cases. But it was no unusual thing to find in these exploratory voyages
that “the land lay not as the Globe made mention.” In this particular
expedition, whereon, by the way, Sir Hugh Willoughby and the company of
two of his ships perished in the bitter Lapland regions, there were all
sorts of anxieties through gales of winds, leaky ships, shoals, unknown
coasts, cold and general discomfort inseparable from crudely built
vessels. We can but admire the courageous enterprise which sent them
forth, and thus helped to lay the foundations of our Mercantile Marine
and seek a north-east passage to China.
But, as we know from writers of the sixteenth century, the fact was
that the commodities and wares of England were in small request with
the neighbouring countries. Those goods which, within the memory
of the oldest inhabitants, had been in demand, were now neglected,
notwithstanding that English ships carried the wares into the harbours
of the foreigners. Contrariwise, there was a brisk demand for foreign
goods, and at a high price. Therefore certain “grave citizens of
London ... began to thinke with themselves howe this mischiefe might
bee remedied.” And observing that the Spaniards and Portuguese had
wonderfully increased their wealth by the search and discovery of new
countries and trades; and having taken the advice of Sebastian Cabot,
who was then in London, these wise merchants formed themselves into
a company, and each member put up £25, so that before long the three
ships already mentioned were bought and fitted out with the total £6000
thus obtained, and victualled too. These shrewd Edwardians were doing
exactly what modern merchants do in a period of trade depression
and slump—they went out to look for business in new markets. But the
difference was that the former had first to get the ships and then fit
them out, instead of merely going to the office of a tourist-agency and
purchasing a ticket, and then voyaging in safety, comfort and with the
certainty of being in a particular place on a fixed day.
In this north-east expedition, as soon as the money was obtained the
merchants bought exceptionally strong and well-seasoned planks, and
then the shipwrights set to work with the construction, caulking and
pitching them and covering the bottom with lead sheathing. That was
all comparatively straight-going, but the difficulty was to victual
the ships with food for eighteen months. Indeed, after setting out
from the Thames, some of the food by the time they reached Harwich
was already putrid and the hogsheads of wine leaking. Ships were
ballasted with stones, and before the wind these cumbrous craft would
sail well, but on a wind they made a good deal of leeway. But all
the time these sixteenth-century mariners were learning, and setting
down their records for others to learn. Thus one finds these pioneers
entering such remarks as “a south moone makes a full sea,” “Friday I
went on shoare and observed the variation of the Compasse, which was
three degrees and a halfe from the North to the West; the latitude
this day was sixtie nine degrees ten minutes.” And in 1557, among the
instructions given to masters and mariners of an expedition, it is
ordered that notes and entries be daily made of the navigations, and
that the young mariners and apprentices be taught and made to learn the
same.
Thus, with every voyage north, south, east or west, with every slump
or boom in trade, the English Mercantile Marine was becoming more
efficient, less unscientific, and the love of seafaring became greater.
Those were the great days when, though the ships were of wood, the
men’s hearts were of gold, and nothing daunted them. Their gear was
none too good, their ships were roughly built, and yet no adversity
ever overcame their fine spirits. They were ready to struggle with any
difficulty. Take the case of the Elizabethan ship which got caught
in heavy weather one September. She hove-to, but was washed down by
almost every sea, and then the rudder was found to be broken and almost
falling off. Next day, as soon as the weather eased, a dozen of the
crew leapt overboard, remained under water as long as possible, worked
at the rudder-planking, bound it with ropes, and finally made such a
good job of it that it was again serviceable; but by the time they were
got aboard once more they were more than half dead. These ships were
always losing anchors, cables, boats and pinnaces; and even when they
had charts and globes, they were finding them full of errors; yet they
“kept on keeping on” and bringing their seafaring profession out of the
dark recesses of ignorance into the light of knowledge.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] _Mariner’s Mirror_, Vol. V. p. 81.
CHAPTER VII
FISHERMEN AND MERCHANTMEN
Up to the end of the sixteenth century we have seen the progress of
the Mercantile Marine influenced by the pilgrim and cargo trade in the
south of Europe, and in the Iberian peninsula by the long ocean voyages
east and west for the purpose of spreading Christianity, trading, and
obtaining greater territory. In the north of Europe we have seen that
the crusades, as in the south, had their effect, and that pilgrims and
merchandise were regularly carried across the Bay of Biscay.
But we have seen, too, that the Hanseatic League and the fishing
industry had from early times done much; nor were these influences
yet dead. It is interesting, as showing the far-sightedness of the
Hanseatics, to note that they were careful to get into their hands
the entire corner of hemp, from which ropes were made. Everywhere
the League had extended its tentacles as a powerful European trading
combine. The market of Bruges was a place where you met all the great
travellers and merchants of Europe. Every one who was any one in
commerce sooner or later came here. In London they had entrenched
themselves with characteristic German astuteness, and their privileges
had been marvellously protected by the English sovereigns from the
twelfth century. Indeed the Hanseatics became, so to speak, the
Rothschilds of Europe for financing regal schemes. The Wars of the
Roses and the hostilities with France were the means of making the
Hanseatics very useful financially, and they got their reward in the
shape of special privileges, which their depôt just above London Bridge
in Thames Street enjoyed for many a year. Down to the time of Edward VI
they indeed prospered exceedingly.
In Portugal the League had established a factory at Lisbon, and thence
they traded with the Italian commercial republics and also got a
hold on the big Levantine trade. But during the reign of Elizabeth
Englishmen began to realise their own strength and capabilities at sea.
The defeat of the Armada, and the many fights with the Spanish and
Portuguese, had given them a confidence which they had never before
enjoyed. The English sailors were to justify their maritime ability
not merely against the southerners, but against these very powerful
and historic members of the northern league. Consequently they did
not hesitate to seize sixty Hanseatic ships about to enter the Tagus
with grain for the Spaniards. In 1598 the Hanseatics were turned out
of England, and though they were allowed eventually to come back,
and their property in the city of London was not sold until 1853,
when the Cannon Street railway station was erected, yet the rise of
English sea-power, expressed not merely in actual fighting, but in the
maritime spirit generally, had given the ancient league its death-blow.
Thereafter it merely lingered.
But simultaneously with the decline of the Spanish and Hanseatic
Mercantile Marines was growing up the Dutch. And it cannot be
emphasised too strongly that this was owing to the herring having in
the fifteenth century begun to spawn in the North Sea instead of the
Baltic, as already mentioned. It seems curious that an innocent fish
should thus be the deciding force of international history. If you
examine modern Dutch charts you will still see marked channels and
shoals which show the intimate connection which that country had with
fishing. The “haringvliet,” or mouth of the Maas, and the “Schotsman”
shoal, off the island of Walcheren, at once suggest the time when the
Low Countries were acquiring wealth by their fisheries and doing a
good deal of trade with Scotland. Then they became more ambitious, and
built those fine great ships, which you see in the paintings of Vroom
and other artists, that were the means of bringing home from their
East Indies wealth in another form once enjoyed by the Venetians and
Spaniards.
So invaluable had the fisheries been to the Dutch, both in regard to
shipbuilding and in creating a fine school of seamanship, that by
the time of Cromwell these Netherlanders were the “waggoners of the
sea,” had the world’s carrying trade and owned four-fifths of all the
merchant ships that sailed the seas. Now, having regard to the young,
keen sea spirit which had made the sixteenth century so illustrious,
it was hardly surprising that before long there should be trouble
between the English and the Dutch. It was analogous to the years which
immediately preceded the Great War of 1914. Collision was certain:
it was a question only of time. Thus, as early as 1608, Grotius, the
famous Dutch jurist, wrote his _Mare Liberum_, wherein he contended
that the high seas were open to all. Contemporary with him was living
the English jurist Selden, who in 1618 had begun his treatise _Mare
Clausum_. At the request of James I it was not published for fear of
complications with the Danes, but in 1635 Selden again took up this
work at the desire of Charles I. In the previous year Charles began to
levy ship-money, which really was intended in order to strengthen the
fleet against the Dutch in the probability of war.
Legislation is merely the expression of the nation’s contemporary
fears, and in the long series of maritime Acts from the fourteenth
century onwards we can see the national nervousness of the time lest
the foreigner should dominate the success of our Mercantile Marine. We
have already seen Edward I styling himself “Sovereign of the Seas.”
Then in the last years of the fourteenth century we have what was
the first of the Navigation Acts. The basic aim was to exclude the
ships, seamen and trade of the foreigner and to encourage those of
our country. We will not bore the reader with a legal dissertation,
but it will help us to understand the difficulties of the time if,
very briefly, we show how the State was helping the subject of our
study. During the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth there
was legislation dealing with the privileges of English shipping. At a
later date the claim to the sovereignty of the seas was expressed by
compelling the Flemish subjects of Philip, who married our Queen Mary,
to pay a fine and an annual rent of £1000 for twenty-one years’ lease
of the fishing near the north Irish coast, whilst a similar lease with
similar conditions was granted by Mary to the Hanseatics. Without a
licence foreign subjects were forbidden to fish in English waters,
though with the decline of English sea-power in the seventeenth century
foreigners ceased to be bound by these claims.
The doctrine of the “Dominion of the Seas” is inseparably bound up in
the growth of our Mercantile Marine and our fishing industry. Matters
reach a crisis in the dispute, and then the discussion is settled by
an appeal to force in the shape of war. The Anglo-Dutch wars were
fundamentally caused by the herring fisheries and the Mercantile
Marines of the two nations. Every other reason was entirely artificial
and subservient. Whether the seas could be free to all everywhere to
trade, whether the fisherman could shoot his nets where he liked—that
is the whole matter in a nutshell. And the more ships that were
built for trade or fishing, the more serious the crisis developed.
Proportionately the value of a navy becomes greater, and thus the
two services are bound to become less and less similar, as greater
commercial demands are made on the one and purely warlike requirements
are insisted on for the other.
The seventeenth century was the crisis in the career of the Mercantile
Marine, for it was struggling for its very life amid many dangers, but
it emerged with an independence and character of its own. In any long
period of assured peace it reaches enormous heights of success, as, for
instance, during the nineteenth century. But during the Caroline period
a principle was being insisted upon. The position was this. Charles I
was determined to compel the Dutch to acknowledge the English claim to
the dominion of the seas, and that was the reason for the building, in
1637, of that marvellous and sensational warship the _Sovereign of the
Seas_, a triumph of Pett’s design, which Van der Velde depicted for
posterity. This 1683-ton “battleship,” as we should call her nowadays,
was an expression, both in name and character, of the English attitude
in regard to the use of the seas.
“We hold it a principle,” Charles had instructed his Minister at The
Hague, “not to be denied, that the King of Great Britain is a monarch
at sea and on land to the full extent of his dominions. His Majesty
finds it necessary for his own defence and safety to reassume and
keep his ancient and undoubted rights in the Dominion of the Seas.”
Having forbidden foreigners to fish off our coasts without licence,
Charles’ fleet attacked and put to flight a Dutch fishing fleet which
had infringed this order. Some of these small craft were thus sunk by
our men-of-war, and many of the rest took shelter in harbour. Finally
the Dutch agreed to pay Charles I £30,000 for permission to finish that
year’s fishing, and to pay a sum annually for the like privilege.
We can well understand the irritation which this line of action
caused so great a maritime power as the Dutch. Great sea pioneers
they certainly were, and before the first decade after the defeat of
the Armada had passed, they had been the first country to send out a
real Polar expedition. In 1651 came the celebrated English Navigation
Act, which prohibited the importation of goods into England except in
English ships, or in the ships of the country producing the goods. This
was quite obviously aimed at the great Dutch sea-carriers. Relations
became strained, the war-clouds gathered, and in the following year the
first of the three Anglo-Dutch wars broke out inevitably between the
English and Dutch republics.
The Navigation Act of 1651 was confirmed by that of nine years later,
and thus the English Mercantile Marine had its future settled on sure
foundations. In a word, the disputes as to where fishermen could
shoot their nets to get herrings were the indirect means of giving
the merchant ships their unique opportunity. Holland’s carrying trade
fell into our hands, prosperity came to our country, the sailing
ships of our nation penetrated everywhere, and, as you can see by the
seventeenth-century architecture in the leading Dutch cities, the
wealth obtained overseas suddenly ceased to flow in a big way. It
is for those who have eyes a veritable story in stones, which ends
suddenly and dramatically.
It is to the credit of the rulers of our country in the seventeenth
century that they realised what the fisheries meant to us. The Act
of 1651 was of great assistance in providing that no fish should be
brought into England or Ireland, or exported thence to foreign parts,
or even carried from one English or Irish port to another, except fish
caught by English and Irish fishermen in English and Irish ships.
In 1661 the Parliament of Scotland also passed navigation laws for
the encouragement of their native shipping, and one Act for founding
companies to extend the fishing industry. Very subtle, too, was the
proclamation of James I in 1621 against eating flesh in Lent or on
other “fish days,” the reasons given being “the maintenance of our
navy and shipping, a principal strength of this island, and for the
sparing and increase of fresh victuals.” This and similar proclamations
considerably helped the fishermen.
In order fully to appreciate all that the fishing meant to the Dutch,
it is necessary to mention also that not merely did they seek the
herring as far away as the Thames estuary, the Orkneys, Shetlands and
the Irish coast, but, owing to the ingenuity and enterprise of one
Beuckels, they had learned how to cure and barrel this fish. In this
way they enjoyed a wonderful monopoly in supplying Catholic central
and northern Europe. In the year 1560, for instance, the value of
the year’s fishing trade to Friesland, Holland, Zeeland and Flanders
amounted to the enormous sum of £300,000. Just as to-day the steam
fish-carriers go out to fetch the catch home from the fleets fishing
off the Dogger Bank and elsewhere, so the Dutch in the seventeenth
century were using a fast-sailing type of craft, called “vent-jagers,”
to hurry into port the fresh herrings caught by the slow, round, tubby
“busses.” This practice was in vogue certainly by 1604.
It was a statute of 1663, for the encouragement of our fisheries,
which forbade any fresh herrings being imported into England except in
English-built ships, and no ship could sail for Iceland from England
until March 10, thus protecting the fish at breeding time. The Act of
1666 prohibited the importation of herrings caught by foreigners. And,
having done all this, the time came when those Englishmen who owned
capital thought they saw an opportunity for getting richer. Thus in
1677 a Royal Fishery Company was incorporated, the Duke of York and
many peers and gentlemen being partners, with a capital eventually
increased to £12,580. This was spent in the construction of seven
busses, but some of these were captured by the French, who were now
growing up as maritime and commercial people, and were rivals to us in
our fishing. The remainder of the busses were sold off in 1680 and the
company ended in debt.
Three years later another fishing company was started, and this failed
also, whereas the Dutch were doing well with their nets, employing
8000 vessels and 200,000 hands, thus amassing the enormous sum of
£5,000,000 a year. During the time of Charles II the Dutch fishermen
had brought great prosperity to Great Yarmouth, sometimes as many as
1000 busses and fish-carriers being off that port, and buying bread,
beer, flesh and butter from the East Anglians. They used to come ashore
and dry their nets, and the town would find 10,000 of these foreign
sailormen in their neighbourhood. To assuage their thirst, forty
brewers were kept busy in the port. Any one who has any experience
of human nature and of fishermen, will readily understand that there
were many feuds and quarrellings. Ever since 1540 the Dutchmen had
been herring-fishing off that port, and the Englishmen were none too
pleased at this visitation; nor were the Scotch, who in 1532 attacked
the Dutchmen and captured many of their busses, and for nine years
prevented them from using Scottish waters.
As far back as the thirteenth century the herring had been caught in
great numbers off Great Yarmouth, and in 1270 the Yarmouth herring
fair was held for forty days. About that date some Flemish vessels put
to sea and killed 1200 English North Sea fishermen, nor will these
international fishermen’s quarrels ever cease as long as human nature
remains what it is. Before the end of the thirteenth century Grimsby
had begun fishing, and before the end of the sixteenth century the
first Hull whaler had started out on her special industry, whaling
having begun in England only four years previously. Few people are more
conservative than the sailor, and of his service the most conservative
of all is the fisherman, who did not take to steam generally for many a
long year after it had become dominant in the carrying trade. Many of
us can still remember the famous “blue” sailing fishing fleet out of
Great Yarmouth; and the Brixham fleet and others round our coasts still
stick almost exclusively to sail. In the olden days, wool, wheat, fish
and other cargoes were sold by the “last.” Wool is no longer thus sold,
but a hundred years ago wheat was thus reckoned at Great Yarmouth, and
round our coasts to this day fish is still disposed of in the old-time
manner, a Yarmouth “last” amounting roughly to 13,200 herrings or about
two and a half tons.
In our British North Sea fishing craft the busses have given way very
largely to steam drifters, but off the Dutch shores the Scheveningen
“pink” is much the same craft in hull as were the vessels which caused
so much friction in the seventeenth century. The very word by which
these craft have been known is in itself symbolical of the antiquity
of the industry. The mediæval Venetians had “buzi,” and throughout the
Romance and Teutonic languages it has always meant a fishing boat, the
seventeenth-century Englishmen getting the use from the Dutch North Sea
craft.
The two principal types of fishing craft in the North Sea were the buss
and the “dogger.” With regard to the former, the earliest illustration
I have discovered is that by Elandts in the Municipal Museum at The
Hague, made in 1664 from a picture of 1570. This “haring buys” is the
prototype of the seventeenth-century buss, and consists of two masts,
each having a square-sail. Like the modern drifter, the buss lowered
her foremast and rode to her nets. This Elandts buss is really nothing
more than a large open boat, with three hands in her; the length of
the craft I reckon not more than about thirty feet. A rather bigger
type, similarly rigged but with three masts, is depicted in the Dutch
Waghenaer’s _Speculum Nauticum_ of 1584 riding to her nets, with fore
and mainmasts lowered. Among the sixteen ships which Frobisher took
with him in 1578, one was the _Emmanuel_ of Bridgewater, and she is
described as a buss. It will be recollected that this was another
attempt to find the north-west passage to China, and this craft
performed most admirable service, and as she came homeward discovered
an island which had never before been sighted. Thus, there is no
question about the seaworthiness of this fishing type of craft.
In the Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam, there is an interesting painting by
Bellevois showing a mid-seventeenth-century buss of a powerful type,
with three masts, a square-sail on each, and riding with her mizzen up,
but the other sails and masts lowered. Keymor, who wrote in 1601 on the
Dutch fishing, describes these craft as being from sixty to two hundred
tons, and carrying from forty to a hundred lasts. The anonymous author
of _Britaine’s Busse_, published in 1615, describes them as being
of from thirty-five lasts or seventy tons, and measuring fifty feet
on the keel, with a beam of seventeen feet. Her cost, together with
her boat, was £260. There is another fine picture of these craft by
Storck, hanging in the Mauritshuis at The Hague, the date being 1683,
and from the rounded stern and general lines of the ship it is easy
enough to see that she belongs to the same family to which the familiar
Scheveningen “pink,” so well known in modern art, belongs.
Often in the mediæval records one finds reference to a North Sea
fishing type called the “dogger.” Exactly what these were like, it
would be impossible to say, except that they probably had not more
than two masts carrying square-sails, and that they were line fishers,
for cod and ling, and did not use nets, their size in the seventeenth
century varying from sixty to one hundred tons. It is reasonable to
suppose, from the later illustrations which exist, that the dogger was
in hull and square-sails not very different from the buss.
The end of the seventeenth century, then, saw the British Mercantile
Marine both in respect of its fishing craft and its cargo-carriers,
going ahead. As regards the latter, the finest of all were the ships
of the East India Company of England and those of the Dutch East India
Company, with their stately hulls, lofty sterns, high freeboard and
two decks of guns. A picture of 1647 shows them with three masts, as
well as bowsprit, and they even carry topgallant sails on fore and
main. Such craft are, in fact, the connecting link between the last
of the mediæval ships and the first of the famous clipper ships. The
stolid majesty of their design and build, the elaborateness of their
seventeenth-century carvings, were expressive of that permanence with
which the Merchant Service now rightly regarded itself. Indeed so
prosperous had the British East India Company become in the seventeenth
century, that by 1681 this corporation owned about thirty-five ships,
ranging in size from 100 to 775 tons, and in customs alone the company
was paying £60,000 a year. They used to take out to India cargoes of
lead, tin, cloth and stuffs, bringing back home raw silk, pepper and
other Eastern goods. Trade prospered so well, indeed, that between 1682
and 1689 as many as sixteen East Indiamen of from 900 to 1300 tons were
built, and all these ships had to be armed; for during the last decade
of that century these merchantmen ran the risk of being attacked by
French men-of-war as well as by privateers, so that in carrying from
thirty to fifty guns these East Indiamen were very powerful vessels for
any enemy to have to encounter.
[Illustration: SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY DUTCH EAST INDIAMEN.]
[Illustration: SIGNAL CODE.
Used in a British East Indiaman.]
CHAPTER VIII
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SEAFARING
Few people realise that the trade routes of the world are the lanes
along which history is constrained to flow. It is a fascinating study,
but we have little enough room to develop the subject here. The success
of Prince Henry the Navigator’s influence, the achievement of Vasco
da Gama, completely revolutionised the trade routes of the world,
transformed the European mercantile system, made the gate of commerce
not Venice but Lisbon, transferred the centre of progress from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic; and the discovery of America accentuated
this new condition still further.
What followed? First, the Dutch, having built up a shipping industry,
so to speak, on the backbone of the herring, were able to get the
trade of distributing these goods from Lisbon to the north European
countries. This, in turn, caused competition on the part of the
English, who were not intending to be left out of the new fortune.
Secondly, the Dutch and English began themselves to voyage to the East.
And thirdly, the discovery of the rich possibilities of the East and
West not merely made the Mediterranean commercially of little future
account, but gave to the nations of the European Atlantic coasts
an impetus to progress and a reason for strife which had never yet
occurred. The history of the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries is
confined to the struggle for the dominion of the seas—that is, maritime
commercial supremacy, caused by the flow of trade taking a new route.
The wars with the Dutch, the French and the Spanish were at heart the
struggle for possession of overseas commerce, and the recent war with
Germany was animated by the same cause.
It is impossible to emphasise this trade route influence too much,
for without a clear appreciation of its place in history the sequence
of events becomes meaningless, and the rise and development of the
Mercantile Marine seem arbitrary. Prince Henry the Navigator started
a wonderful sea contest, and it has never stopped during the ensuing
centuries. As soon as one keen competitor drops out, another comes in
to keep up the running. That has been the impelling influence in the
history of the English Mercantile Marine. When Spain falls out, the
Dutch take her place. When they cease to be competitors, the French
become the pacemakers, to be followed by the Germans; and now that the
latter have disappeared almost entirely from the sea, the United States
ships of commerce will maintain this ancient contest. And so it will
go on, unless air routes cause another revolution in the transport of
merchandise, and give another sudden twist to the flow of history.
The seventeenth century, then, saw a wonderful incentive to the
English Merchant Navy just because the East was calling. And, as a
result of this, there followed in due succession the creation of the
East India Company, the wonderful and famous East Indiamen built
chiefly at Blackwall; then, after the long monopoly came to an end,
the famous Blackwall sailing ships of the Wigrams and Greens, the
historic clippers, and finally the Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Company. From the year 1582 for the next three hundred
years from Blackwall, on the River Thames, sailing ships year after
year made their way to the Orient, and it is to my mind one of the
most remarkable continuities in the history of human things. It is
certainly one of the most, if not the most, critical of periods in
the development of the commercial marine. What Portsmouth has been to
the British Navy, the village of Blackwall has been to the British
Mercantile Marine. From the Blackwall yard were launched hundreds
of East Indiamen; from here came improved and novel designs for the
sailing ships that were to win and retain against all competitors
commercial supremacy at sea for the British nation. But for these craft
the trend of English history, of the world’s history, would be entirely
different.
There would have been neither the cause nor the means of a powerful
navy; nor of Colonial expansion; nor would the position which Britain
possesses financially have been possible. I am omitting intentionally
for the present the development of the American trade, for that came
later. It was the Eastern overseas trade in the merchant ships of the
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which was responsible
for an enormous part of the national wealth, many of our costliest
buildings and institutions, the founding of illustrious families, and
indirectly the awakening of Japan. All this dates back to Prince Henry
and Vasco da Gama—to the finding of a sea route to the East.
It was in April 1582 that the first ship left for the East—when the
_Edward Bonaventure_ sailed from Blackwall, joined the flagship
_Leicester_ at Southampton, and, four weeks out from the London
river, accompanied the two other ships. They made a futile attempt
to reach India west about, and because the Spanish Fleet were in the
neighbourhood of the Magellan Straits, had to return to England. In
1595 Holland sent four ships round the Cape of Good Hope, and two years
later the expedition came back, after making a treaty with the King of
Bantam and thus opening up the Indian archipelago. In 1599 a number
of merchants in London petitioned Elizabeth for permission to have a
monopoly to trade with the East Indies, and on the last day of the
following year this privilege was granted for fifteen years, and thus
the first East India Company began.
A small squadron of ships left the Thames in 1601 with iron, lead,
tin and presents for the Indian princes, doubled the Cape of Good
Hope on November 1, and reached Sumatra on June 5, 1602. By September
11, 1603, the flagship _Red Dragon_ anchored in the Downs, after a
most successful voyage, bringing home 1,030,000 lbs. of pepper in the
four ships. And thus the beginning of Anglo-Indian commerce started
so profitably that matters went ahead. The monopoly was extended and
prolonged, until as a fact it was not abrogated until 1833. Expedition
after expedition was sent out, until it became the normal routine;
the ships of the East India Company were a kind of bridge between
the Thames and the Orient. The Merchant Navy was thus on the way to
becoming something different from the fighting service, though it was
not until many years had passed, not until wars had ceased, privateers
and pirates had ended their activities, that the former could afford
to give up mounting guns and carrying gunners. Nineteenth century
peace thus gave a basis for separating the two types of ships and
the two kinds of personnel; and thereafter the Royal Navy and the
Mercantile Marine developed on divergent lines. But, up to that stage,
the East Indiaman differed little enough from many of her contemporary
men-of-war. Although formally the separation came earlier, it is from
after 1815 that the real separation takes place, and the amalgamation
never occurred again for a hundred years, when, temporarily, the ships
and men of the Merchant Service came to join up with the Royal Navy as
fighting units during the Great War.
We need not follow in detail the events of the great East India
Company’s rule—by far the most extraordinary monopoly which Europe
has ever had with an overseas country. It is important, however, to
note the effect of this in stimulating shipping affairs. The Dutch and
English began to improve their ships as well they might for so long an
ocean voyage. As to the former, the picture galleries in such places as
Middelburg, and Rotterdam, and Amsterdam show what truly magnificent
craft they were, with their t’gallant sails, high poops, stern
galleries and ornate decoration. They were the embodiment of wealth. In
the first decade of the seventeenth century there was built in England
the _Trades Increase_, for the English Company’s Indian trade. She was
of about 1100 tons burthen, and was the biggest merchant ship which
had ever been built in this country. But she was really too big for
the knowledge of naval architecture then existing. Clumsy, unwieldy
and top-heavy, she got out to the East, but at Bantam, whilst she was
being careened to have her sheathing examined, she fell over on to her
side and became a total loss, the date being 1613.
Nevertheless, shipbuilding did receive a great stimulus, and this
growing interest caused the formation of the Shipwrights Company, its
incorporation taking place in 1612; Phineas Pett, whose family for two
hundred years had been the greatest English naval architects, becoming
its first master. By this date of 1612 the yard at Blackwall, which was
to be during the next two and a half centuries so famous, was already
well established, and twenty years later almshouses were established at
Poplar for invalided petty officers of the East India Company’s ships.
For when we think of the Merchant Service in England during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is almost exclusively of the
East Indiamen. It begins gradually, and becomes more important as time
goes on and the grip on the East gets tighter. The great port was
London, for it was not until the opening up of the trade with America
in 1756 that Liverpool began in any way to compete as a great shipping
centre, though actually it was not until 1815 that the Lancashire port
made great strides. Nevertheless we must not get a false impression.
The Tudor awakening had created comparatively few big ships, and
even in 1615 there were only ten craft of more than 200 tons burthen
belonging to the Port of London. Still, it was the eve of brilliant
developments, the like of which the world had never before known.
Though they could not have foreseen it, the Blackwall shipwrights were
preparing the way for the coming of the most perfect sailing ships
which the world has ever seen, or probably ever will see—the clippers
of the mid-nineteenth century.
In 1661 Pepys goes by barge to the Blackwall yard to see the new wet
dock, the largest in England, and the “brave new merchantman _Royal
Oake_,” which was nearly ready for launching. In the following year
Evelyn refers to accompanying the Duke of York to an East India vessel
at Blackwall, and going aboard her where they drank punch and “canary
that had been carried to and brought from the Indies, which was indeed
incomparably good.”
But before the East India Company had offices in the Blackwall yard
and superintended the building of its ships, they had a yard of their
own at Deptford. This dates from the year 1607, where they soon found
employment for five hundred carpenters, caulkers, joiners, and others.
Here there existed a wonderful organisation; large stocks of timber,
masts, yards, canvas, and other stores. There were such officials as
the ship’s husband, the clerk of the stores, the buyers, the clerk
of the yard, the master shipwright, the master pilot (who had to
survey the ships both here and at Blackwall), the boatswain-general,
treasurers, purser-general, the clerk of the cordage, the
surgeon-general, clerk of the slaughter-house (to look after the
victuals), and so on. It was a hive of great activity, and by the year
1621 they had built so many ships that the company owned 10,000 tons
of shipping. They had exported from England in their vessels £319,211
worth of woollen goods, lead, iron, tin and other commodities, and had
brought home from the East £875,288 worth of cargoes, which were sold
in England for the immense sum of £2,044,600. The average profit made
by the first twelve voyages amounted to not less than 138 per cent.
But after leasing the Deptford yard for twenty years, it was found to
be so costly that it swallowed up too much of the capital, which could
be employed more profitably in hiring ships. Therefore the Blackwall
yard became responsible for the building of practically all the East
Indiamen. The company went on from prosperity to wealth. In 1681 they
owned thirty-five ships of from 100 to 775 tons, and two years later a
£100 share would sell for £500. In 1667 was imported the first cargo of
tea, which in the nineteenth century was to be the means of bringing
into existence those wonderful tea-clippers.
And now let us see something of the kind of existence which the
merchant sailor led during the seventeenth century. He and his mode
of life were regarded by the landsman as something strange, something
abnormal. Contrariwise, the sailor realised that his art was almost
beyond the landsman’s comprehension. That spirit, even in this
twentieth century, is anything but dead, and between the two avocations
there must always exist a big gulf. But we have to remember that in
the seventeenth century seafaring was still such a modern and rare
career (though yearly increasing in popularity) that he who made a
profession of it was an unusual being. “The sea language,” wrote the
seventeenth-century Sir William Monson in his _Naval Tracts_, “is not
soon learned, much less understood ... a boisterous sea and stormy
weather will make a man not bred on it so sick, that it bereaves him
of legs and stomach and courage ... when he hears the seamen cry
starboard, or port, or to bide alooff, or flat a sheet, or haul home a
cluling, he thinks he hears a barbarous speech, which he conceives not
the meaning of.”
Similarly John Lyly, the dramatist who died in 1606, in his
_Gallathea_, gives a dialogue between a mariner and three sons of a
miller in which this difference is indicated. The landsmen will never
go to sea again, for the bread is hard and the meat salt, and the
mariner is pitied for being “pinned in a few boards, and ... within an
inch of a thing bottomless.” The mariner, however, rather delights in
showing his superiority over them. “I can shift the moon and the sun,”
he exclaims, “... the lodestone that always holdeth his nose to the
North, the two and thirty points for the wind, the wonders I see—would
make you blind. You be but boys. I fear the sea no more than a dish of
water.” He then tries to teach them the points of the compass, but they
cannot learn them. “O dullard,” he remarks in disgust, “is thy head
lighter than the wind, and thy tongue so heavy it will not wag?”
Richard Braithwait, who wrote during the seventeenth century, published
in 1631, in his _Whimzies_, an essay on the contemporary sailor, whom
he admires for his pluck, disregard of danger and for his hardihood. He
looks upon him as a desperate, hearty good-natured fellow of dissolute
habits when ashore. “The bredth of an inch-boord is betwixt him and
drowning, yet hee swears and drinks as deeply as if hee were a fathom
from it.... Hee is most constant to his shirt, and other his seldome
wash’d linnen.... What a starveling hee is in a frosty morning, with
his Sea frocke, which seems as it were shrunke from him, and growne too
short, but it will be long enough ere hee get another.”
The English writer Sir Thomas Overbury, who was arrested and confined
in the Tower, and died in 1613, has left behind a study of the
character of the sailor at this time. He wittily describes him as
“a pitched piece of reason, caulked and tackled, and only studied
to dispute with tempests.... A fair wind is the substance of his
creed, and fresh water the burden of his prayers.... In a storm ’tis
disputable whether the noise be more his or the elements’, and which
will first leave scolding.... His language is a new confusion, and all
his thoughts new nations. His body and his ship are both one burden.
Nor is it known who stows most wine, or rolls most—only the ship is
guided.”
The references to life at sea in the seventeenth-century merchantmen
are not many, but here and there one comes across mention of some
ship or experience. Pepys, whilst sailing down the Thames estuary
on Sunday, April 8, 1660, writes in his diary: “We had a brave wind
all the afternoon, and overtook two merchantmen that overtook us
yesterday, going to the East Indies.” But there are two interesting
passages in English literature which show that going to sea in the
ships of this period was a terrible business. The first is found in the
autobiography of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, an English historian
and diplomatist, who describes his experience of crossing the English
Channel in a French ship in the year 1609. The second is taken from
Jonathan Swift’s famous _Gulliver’s Travels_. There is no need to ask
why fiction should be dragged into history; for Swift borrowed this
descriptive account of an East Indiaman in a storm almost word for word
from James Love’s _The Mariner’s Jewel_, and it gives us a glimpse
into the seafaring of the beginning of the eighteenth century that
bears the stamp of authenticity. And it is such peeps into the past
that are so invaluable to us in reconstructing the life led by the
rough seaman at this time, who was learning by his mistakes, risking
much by his ignorance, but doing so much for the great Merchant Service
that was to spread all over the world.
Herbert, together with Sir Thomas Lucy returning from France, took
ship from Dieppe early in February and spent the night in the Channel
during a gale of wind. “The master of our ship,” he wrote, “lost both
the use of his compass and his reason. For, not knowing whither he was
carried by the tempest, all the help he had was by the lightnings,
which, together with thunder very frequently that night, terrified
him, yet gave the advantage sometimes to discover whether we were
upon our coast to which he thought, by the course of his glasses, we
were near approached.” That is to say, the master was anxious about
his dead reckoning, which was kept by guessing the distance run every
hour. The time was kept by means of hourly and half-hourly glasses from
Elizabethan times even to the eighteenth century aboard ship, according
to the number of times the sand ran through.
Towards daylight the ship sighted Dover and the master made for it.
Here the local seafarers were in great numbers by the shore on the
look-out for wreckage, for the gale had blown down their own barns and
trees. But the French skipper was either a very bad seaman, or his ship
was extremely unhandy, for the craft went smack up against Dover pier
and split, whereupon the Frenchman cheerfully announced: “Mes amis,
nous sommes perdus.” Herbert, though in the toils of sea-sickness,
then emerged from his cabin, climbed part of the way up the mast
and waved his sword for help. A local six-oared boat then came off,
into which Herbert was the first to enter. Lucy was half dead with
sea-sickness, but was lifted from the cabin to the boat, and thus they
were saved. Other boats rowed off the rest of the men and the horses.
The ship, concluded Herbert, “was wholly split and cast away, insomuch
that in pity to the master, Sir Thomas Lucy and myself gave thirty
pounds towards his loss, which yet was not so great as we thought,
since the tide now ebbing, he recovered the broken parts of his ship.”
Dean Swift, in _Gulliver’s Travels_, refers to the ship _Adventure_
riding in the Downs at the end of June 1702. She was commanded by
Captain John Nicholas, a Cornishman, and bound for Surat. At the Cape
of Good Hope they landed for fresh water, but other reasons detained
them until the end of March. A good passage was then made till north
of Madagascar, when bad weather was encountered. The spritsail (the
square-sail set on a small mast at the end of the bowsprit) was
therefore taken in, the mizzen was handed, and the guns secured. Rather
than heave-to, the captain decided to run before the wind—“spooning” is
the technical expression—the foresail was reefed, the fore-sheet hauled
aft, the helm put hard aweather, and “the ship wore bravely.” But the
foresail became split, and the yard was hauled down. “It was a very
fierce storm; the sea broke strange and dangerous. We hauled off upon
the lanyard of the whip-staff, and helped the man at helm.” For there
was no steering wheel in use yet, and this was not introduced until
about fifty years later. The tiller from the rudder was controlled by
a vertical bar or lever, called a “whip-staff,” and the lanyards would
naturally enough be used, as it is employed to this day for assisting
the helm of sailing yachts.
After scudding before the storm, the weather at last eased up. Then
the ship set her foresail and mainsail and hove-to, and finally set
the mizzen, main-topsail and fore-topsail, and with the wind S.W. ran
a course E.N.E. Then they “got the starboard tacks aboard” and headed
S.S.E. “We cast off our weather braces and lifts. We set in the lee
braces and hauled forward by the weather bowlines and hauled them tight
and belayed them, and hauled over the mizzen tack to windward and kept
her full-and-by as near as she could lie.” That is to say, the ship was
now trimmed to sail on a wind, the bowlines, which were connected by
bridles to the leech of the sail, being used to keep the weather edge
well hauled out tight, to make the canvas set properly. The mizzen, of
course, was still a triangular, fore and aft sail. Finally on June 3,
1703, a boy on the topmast sighted land.
It is a little difficult in this highly specialised twentieth century
to appreciate the slight difference which existed between a merchant
ship and a man-of-war. Between the men of the Merchant Service and
those of the Navy there was thus little to choose. From the Elizabethan
days most merchant ships of any size had to be armed for their own
defence. Moreover the merchantman was as much privateer or pirate as
he was freighter. He had to be a fighting man, whatever else he might
be. Thus there was always at hand a reserve of crews which could be
“imprest” into the Navy. During the first quarter of the seventeenth
century the merchants were paying their crews thirty shillings a month,
whilst the men in the Royal ships were receiving less than half this
amount. The result was that for a time the merchant ships attracted the
best seamen.
It was from the Merchant Service that some of the most distinguished
officers of the Royal Navy graduated. Admiral Benbow, for instance, had
been an apprentice in the Merchant Service, and was eventually given
command of a naval ship such as was usually given to a lieutenant. He
was promoted later to captain and to flag rank. This caused jealousy
and bad feeling, and the reader will remember that this Admiral, when
attacking the enemy in 1702 in the West Indies, was basely deserted
by some of his captains, but he carried on a running fight almost
single-handed for five days.
Other names could be mentioned, too. Neither masters nor mates were
exempt from being impressed; and these rough, daring merchantmen, who
fought as hard as they drank, who despised the enemy as heartily as
they despised cowardice, were the very life-blood of the nation that
was growing up to prosperous adolescence. England was just realising
what was the meaning of the word sea. As Francis Bacon wrote in his
essay: “To be master of the sea is an abridgment of a monarchy....
Surely, at this day, with us of Europe, the vantage of strength at
sea (which is one of the principal dowries of this kingdom of Great
Britain) is great; both because most of the kingdoms of Europe are not
merely inland, but girt with the sea most part of their compass; and
because the wealth of both Indies seems in great part but an accessory
to the command of the seas.”
It takes time for a nation to appreciate all that maritime progress
connotes. We in this twentieth century have seen that it required the
Great European War to enable the United States to realise this, and the
present American mercantile shipping activity and development are the
practical results of this appreciation. The Merchant Navy to a country
is the basis on which her fighting Navy is built. It is the avenue
along which her commerce must flow out and home.
CHAPTER IX
MERCANTILE SUPREMACY AT SEA
The end of the seventeenth century saw the British Mercantile Fleet as
the world’s leading traders. The disappearance of their Spanish and
then Dutch rivals in sea commerce was brought about not by battle, but
by the steady pressure of sea-power, as in the recent European War the
continuous pressure of the Grand Fleet throttled the Germans. Just as
the Battle of Jutland failed to bring about the downfall of our late
enemies, so the defeat of the Armada did not succeed in breaking Spain;
so, too, no single battle in the Anglo-Dutch wars brought the maritime
progress of the great Dutch Republic to a dead stop.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
CAPTAIN THOMAS FORREST.
Navigator and Surveyor, who formed in 1770 for the H.E. India Company a
new settlement at Balambangan.]
This sea pressure having fulfilled its purpose, the English merchantmen
were able to scoop up from exhausted nations the world’s maritime
commerce; and the voyages of discovery, notably those of Dampier,
Anson and Cook, together with the enterprising penetration of the
East Indiamen, and to a smaller extent the West Indiamen (who enjoyed
the benefits of free trade), opened up fresh avenues of commerce. The
fighting fleets had opened up the oceans for the mercantile ships to
bring home riches. By the year 1688 the annual clearance outwards from
Great Britain was 191,000 tons of English shipping and 95,000 tons of
foreign shipping. In a hundred years the nation had become supreme,
simply because our forefathers, like any great business man, had
possessed the imagination to see that the ocean was the road to wealth,
and they had also not lacked the courage to put their maritime belief
to the test.
Thus in the year 1701-1702 its Mercantile Marine consisted of 3281
vessels of 261,222 tons, armed with 5660 guns and giving employment
afloat to 27,196 men. During the eighteenth century wet docks had to
be made both in the Thames and the Mersey, the first Marine Insurance
Company came into being, and Lloyd’s Register of Shipping was started.
The history of Lloyd’s is indicative of the progress of the Mercantile
Marine. In the seventeenth century a number of underwriters used to
meet in Edward Lloyd’s coffee-house in Tower Street for their business.
In 1692 this coffee-house was removed to Lombard Street, and then, in
1774, Lloyd’s gave up the coffee-house and went to their premises in
the Royal Exchange, where they have remained ever since.
It is clear from Lloyd’s Register of Shipping that from 1764 to the
end of that century most of the British ships were of not more than
300 tons; but we have to bear in mind two important facts. Firstly,
the East Indian monopoly prevented competition, and therefore any
stimulus to build anything larger; and secondly, from 1775 to 1815,
with only small patches of peace, there was a long series of wars.
These hostilities naturally caused the tonnage of commercial shipping
to drop, but every time that peace was restored the figures began to
go up again; so that in 1793, when war broke out with France, Great
Britain possessed 16,079 merchant ships as compared with the 3281 at
the commencement of the century. It was therefore an amazingly live
industry, which required only a fair opportunity for its development.
This development was, as might be expected, accurately reflected at the
Blackwall yard, in spite of the fact that the slips and shipwrights had
largely during those forty years to be employed for building men-of-war
for the Navy. By the middle of the century this yard had a wet dock,
three dry docks and a number of slips. It was the biggest private
dockyard in the country, and only the Royal yards could rival it. Here
the East Indiamen continued to be built, the direct ancestors of the
great liners of to-day. In the period 1750-1752 was here constructed
the East Indiaman _Falmouth_. She was a fine three-masted, full-rigged
ship of 668 tons burthen, measuring 108 feet 9 inches on the keel, and
having a beam of 34 feet. She carried topsails and t’gallant sails and,
with her large figure-head and rather wasteful, ornate design at bow
and stern, maintained her close connection with the ship architecture
of the seventeenth century.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
BRUNSWICK DOCK, BLACKWALL.
Built especially for the use of the H.E. India Company’s ships, and
begun in 1789. It could accommodate sixty of these vessels.]
During the next thirteen years were launched such East Indiamen as the
642-ton _Osterley_, the 642-ton _Tilbury_, the _Valentine_ and _Ajax_,
each of 655 tons. In 1768 no fewer than five such ships of 670 tons
were constructed and fitted out, and then, a couple of years later,
ships of 700 tons began to be built. The East India Company used to
charter such ships practically as long as they were seaworthy; and
Blackwall in those days was able to do everything that the monopolists
required; for here not only were the ships built, rigged and laid
up, but ashore the houses were the homes of seafaring families,
shipwrights, caulkers and every trade concerned in the building of
these craft. And then in 1789 was launched from this yard the big
1612-ton _Bombay Castle_, a powerful vessel of seventy-four guns, which
the East India Company presented to George III. There is a picture
by Dodd which shows as many as four other big ships on the slips at
this time, together with four or five similar craft fitting out in
the stream. It is comparable only to the Clyde in the height of its
twentieth century shipbuilding.
With the increase in the number of these ships came, of course, the
greater need for docks where the vessels could lie in tiers in safety
and convenience; so in 1789 the Brunswick Basin was begun in the east
end of the Blackwall yard. Two years later the first ship was masted
here. This was the _Lord Macartney_, and you may guess of the keenness
and smartness of the men when you learn that her bowsprit and all her
masts were raised and fixed in the remarkable time of three hours and
forty minutes. To-day, with all the modern appliances of cranes and
labour-saving devices, this record is worth noting. Two years later was
launched from this yard the famous East Indiaman _Warren Hastings_,
which, as will be seen presently, was destined to become famous for her
achievement in 1806.
These East Indiamen, the backbone and beauty of the British Marine,
were frigate-built, and stately rather than fast sailers, badly
designed, requiring much ballast, and essentially but little
improved since the sixteenth century. For during the latter part of
the eighteenth century it was the French who were the finest naval
architects. But two names become associated with the history of this
yard before the close of the eighteenth century, and it is with these
two families that the golden age of the sailing ship will ever be
remembered. In another chapter we shall see how much the Wigrams and
Greens did to make the British ships unique in the annals of sail. It
is therefore worth mentioning that in the year 1764 comes the first
mention of Robert Wigram. His father had been master of a privateer.
After his death the young Robert came to London and was apprenticed
to a surgeon. Two years later Wigram took his surgeon’s diploma and
then sailed in that capacity in one of the East India Company’s ships.
This was the _Admiral Watson_. Subsequently he also served in the
_Duke of Richmond_, but about 1770, after acquiring valuable knowledge
of the Eastern trade, he became a merchant, and later one of the
proprietors of this yard, his son William afterwards becoming one of
the directors of the East India Company. It was in 1782 that George
Green was apprenticed to the yard, and owing to his ability and other
circumstances, was destined also to become later one of the partners.
It is interesting also to mention that young Wigram, during his voyage
in the _Admiral Watson_, formed a friendship with the second officer,
whose name was W. T. Money. We thus see the first association of those
three names, Money, Wigram and Green, which are inseparable from the
finest fleet of sailing ships in its most historic period.
But the time has not arrived to discuss the Victorian ships. The
Mercantile Marine of the eighteenth and the first part of the
nineteenth century had first to go through most trying times before
the blessings of permanent peace should arrive. We who are now alive
have not forgotten that for four years during the recent Great War
the merchant shipping of the Allies was subject to the attacks of our
enemies. But in the past it was for forty years, as we have already
seen, the British mercantile vessels had to endure this danger, and it
is our duty to observe how our seafaring forefathers carried on during
those trying times. The fighting spirit was by no means confined to the
Navy, and even apart from those forty years, there hardly seemed a long
period when the trading ship could proceed upon her lawful occasions
without fear of being attacked. If it was not a pirate, it was a
privateer or a warship of some kind. But the merchantman still went
about her business all the same, undaunted and undismayed.
We are familiar with ancient works on naval tactics, but there is in
the British Museum a rare and somewhat damaged volume, printed in
the year 1702, called _The Art of Seafighting_, written by a retired
merchant mariner named Robert Park of Ipswich. It was undertaken on
behalf of the Merchant Service at a time when the privateers were so
active. Park was a “whole-hogger,” who knew no difference between
foolhardiness and courage. He was a real “hard-case” sailorman, typical
of his time, who had no use for luxury, but was a firm believer in
trade and liberty. In this volume he tells his readers how to prepare
the ship for close-fighting, by making the bulkheads musket-proof,
and so on. He tells them how a ship can be worked under fire without
showing a man on deck, gives valuable hints on gunnery and the
importance of sobriety in the duties of a gunner. In the third part of
the book he gives the very same advice which the British Admiralty in
the recent war used to issue to the steamship captains. Park sensibly
reminds his brother seamen that they are merchantmen, that they are
sent to sea not to fight, but to get their cargoes to port, and if
possible they are to avoid engagement. Nevertheless it was a wicked
crime to leave an attacked consort to become a prey to the enemy.
He gives seamanlike hints on how a three-masted ship should escape. He
shows the ship stations and duties when preparing for battle, where the
master is to take up his position, where the gunner is to be stationed,
what the mate and the carpenter are to be doing. He gives the best
tactics with regard to the enemy’s boarding, and even discourses on the
handling of a fleet of merchantmen, incidentally maintaining that for
them the weather-gauge is not usually advantageous. He prefers having
a fleet in double, treble or even quadruple line, and gives diagrams.
It is a quaint book, of human as well as practical interest, and well
indicates the fine spirit of our eighteenth century merchantmen. Those
who read it must have found it extraordinarily useful.
It may be as well, before proceeding further, to make quite clear the
meaning of the two expressions “privateer” and “Letter of Marque.”
Legally there was no difference, but in practice a privateer was a
vessel which took out a licence for the purpose of cruising against
the enemy’s merchant ships. In order to send the prizes into port
she necessarily carried a large crew. A “Letter of Marque” was a
merchant ship with a cargo bound for her port in the usual manner,
but possessing this licence which exempted her from convoy, nominally
protected her crew from being impressed, and gave her the right to
attack an enemy merchantman without having to wait until the latter
attacked her. In a word, she was primarily a merchantman, whereas the
privateer was a fighting merchant cruiser.
But these British merchant captains were as clever as they were brave.
Take the following incident, which occurred at the end of January
1797 off the east end of Java. Here the French Rear-Admiral Sercey,
with a squadron of six frigates, was at sea when five homeward-bound
British East Indiamen came in sight. These five were all richly laden,
and their first duty was certainly to get their cargoes to England
and fight only if inevitable. The names of the British ships were the
_Woodford_, _Ocean_, _Taunton Castle_, _Canton_ and the _Boddam_. These
five were in charge of the senior officer, Captain Charles Lennox. The
latter took the situation in at once, and realised that it would be
useless to run away. Moreover the mere act of so doing would indicate
the inferiority of his squadron; so he did a very smart thing. He
hoisted the flag of Rear-Admiral Rainier at the mizzen, and made the
other four ships hoist pendants and ensigns as if they were men-of-war.
Furthermore, in order to maintain this gigantic piece of bluff, he
actually detached two of his ships to give chase and reconnoitre the
French squadron, and as these daring craft approached the _Cybèle_, the
latter crowded on sail to join her consorts and made the signal at her
masthead: “L’ennemi est supérieur aux forces Françaises.” Thereupon the
French Admiral also made sail. He certainly thought it curious that
when another of his frigates, the _Forte_, carried away her maintopmast
the British did not continue the chase, but the captain of _Cybèle_
hailed him, whilst passing, that he had made out the enemy to consist
of two line-of-battle ships and four frigates! Admiral Sercey therefore
continued his retreat, and the East Indiamen were never engaged. It was
not till a month later that he realised how he had been fooled.
The mere fact that a French naval officer should have taken East
Indiamen for line-of-battle ships is at once a proof of the stateliness
and formidable appearance which the company’s ships possessed. It shows
the great similarity which existed at that time between the ships of
war and of commerce. But finer even than this exploit was the following
brilliant achievement, which is one of the brightest incidents in the
whole story of the Merchant Service. It was on January 31, 1804, that
sixteen East Indiamen set forth from Canton for Europe. They were all
of a size of from 1200 to 1500 tons register, their names being the
_Earl Camden_, _Warley_, _Alfred_, _Royal George_, _Coutts_, _Wexford_,
_Ganges_, _Exeter_, _Earl of Abergavenny_, _Henry Addington_, _Bombay
Castle_, _Cumberland_, _Hope_, _Dorsetshire_, _Warren Hastings_, and
_Ocean_. The senior officer present was Captain Nathaniel Dance, in the
_Earl Camden_, and so was Commodore of all these ships. But it was a
fleet rather than a squadron, for, in addition to the above sixteen,
forty more vessels were also put under his charge to convoy them as far
as their courses remained the same. A convoy of forty sailing ships!
What a magnificent sight they presented, most of them carrying royals
and staysails, and the massive hulls with their stern galleries and
ornate figure-heads and painted ports heeling over gracefully to the
wind!
[Illustration: CAPTAIN HENRY WILSON,
A commanding officer in the H.E. India Company, who was wrecked in
the company’s ship “Antelope.” About 1788.
CAPTAIN HON. RICHARD WALPOLE,
Who commanded the H.E. India Company’s ship “New Houghton.” About 1805.
COMMODORE SIR NATHANIEL DANCE, 1804.
A very gallant mercantile officer. (See p. 98.)
SIR WILLIAM JAMES, BART.,
Commodore in the H.E. India Company, Chairman of the Court of
Directors, etc. About 1805.
(_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._)]
For Commodore Dance it was a most responsible task. This fleet was
carrying many thousand pounds’ worth of goods. There was the danger of
pirates and the possibility of falling in with the French men-of-war;
and there was the ever-present danger of collision. But those were
the days of seamanship, and where would you find to-day any mercantile
or naval officer who could handle a fleet of forty sail? We know
all too well how difficult it was to handle much smaller convoys of
steamships during the recent war; and with engines it is mere child’s
play compared with dependence on wind and sail. To Commodore Dance,
then, I suggest the greatest compliment is due for his leadership and
tactical seamanship alone. But that was not all.
Through night and day for a fortnight he kept his fleet under way
without mishap, and then at daybreak one February day when the fleet
was E.N.E. of Pulo-Auro, which was visible, the _Royal George_ made
a signal that she had sighted four strange sail to the south-west.
Commodore Dance therefore signalled the _Alfred_, _Royal George_,
_Bombay Castle_ and _Hope_ to go down and examine them. It happened
that in the Commodore’s ship there was a passenger named Lieutenant
Robert Fowler, R.N., lately in command of a ship that had been wrecked.
He now offered to go in the fast-sailing brig _Ganges_, which was
in the convoy. The Commodore assented, and she went away also to
examine the strange vessels. Before long the look-out ships signalled
that the strangers were actually a French squadron consisting of a
line-of-battle ship, three frigates and a brig.
At 1 p.m. the British Commodore signalled his scouts to return, and
formed the line of battle in close order. Admiral Linois, who was in
command of the French squadron, as soon as he could fetch in the wake
of the East Indiamen, put about. The Commodore expected his rear to be
attacked, but at nightfall the enemy, preferring a daylight action,
hauled close to the wind. The British ships lay-to all night, the men
at their quarters, ready for action, and at daybreak the enemy were
seen also lying-to, but were three miles to windward. Both forces
now hoisted their colours, and as the whole of the China fleet had
been only recently painted, they presented a wonderful sight with
their clouds of canvas. Admiral Linois’ flag was in the 74-gun ship
_Marengo_, his other units being the 40-gun frigate _Belle-Poule_,
the 36-gun frigate _Sémillante_, the 22-gun _Berceau_, and the 16-gun
_Aventurier_. It was no chance meeting, for the French Admiral was
on the look-out for this China fleet, of whose strength and time of
departure he had been informed.
At 9 a.m., as the enemy showed no intention of engaging, Dance formed
the order of sailing and continued his course, his fleet being under
easy sail on the starboard tack; whereupon the French filled and edged
towards the merchantmen. Four hours later, as it was obvious that
Linois was trying to cut off the rear of the fleet, Dance signalled
his fleet to tack in succession, bear down in line ahead, and engage
on arriving abreast of the enemy. This manœuvre was perfectly carried
out, the _Royal George_ leading, all of them in close order and under
t’gallant sails.[4] At 1.15 p.m. Linois opened fire upon the _Royal
George_ and leading ships, but this was returned in a very determined
manner. For about three-quarters of an hour the two enemies blazed
away at each other. The brunt was borne by the _Royal George_, but the
_Ganges_, _Earl Camden_, _Warley_ and _Alfred_ were all hotly engaged.
These five ships gave the French such a hot time that by two o’clock
_Marengo_ and her consorts ceased firing, hauled their wind, broke
off the engagement and stood away under all sail to the eastward. The
French warships had been beaten by British merchantmen and especially
by clever tactics. But that was not all.
Dance now made the signal for a general chase, and for two hours these
merchant ships chased the warships; and then, remembering that his
first duty was to his ships and their valuable cargoes, Dance feared
that further pursuit would take his fleet too far from the mouth of the
Malacca Straits, so ordered his fleet to tack, and eventually entered
the straits. The _Royal George_ had one man killed, one wounded, and
she received some shot holes in her hull and sails; the other British
ships were practically untouched. The sixteen East Indiamen carried
from thirty to thirty-six guns each, though not one of these ships was
armed better than the _Aventurier_, and this point is to be remembered,
that a warship is always more or less ready to fight, whereas these
East Indiamen were full of cargo and the decks were greatly lumbered.
The Commodore by his determination and promptitude had saved the whole
fleet, and it is to the credit of these sixteen merchantmen that their
smart appearance, the regularity of their manœuvres, and their bold
advance made the French Admiral wonder whether, after all, these were
not British men-of-war escorting the others.
For this remarkable victory the Commodore, officers and crews were
liberally rewarded. The Patriotic Fund Committee, which had originated
in Lloyd’s coffee-house in 1803, presented the Commodore with a sword
of the value of £100 and a silver vase of the same worth. Captain
Timmins of the _Royal George_ also received a sword, as did the other
captains and Lieutenant Fowler. The directors of the East India Company
set aside about £50,000, and rewarded their Commodore with 2000 guineas
and a piece of plate valued at 200 guineas. Captain Timmins received
1000 guineas and plate, the other captains receiving 500 guineas each
and a piece of plate. The chief officers each received 150 guineas, the
second officers 125 guineas, and so on through the ship, each seaman
receiving six guineas.
Dance was given also £5000 by the Bombay Insurance Society. He was
offered a baronetcy, but declined it and accepted a knighthood, and
thus concludes one of the finest incidents in the history of the
Merchant Service. This action showed that the ships and men were not
merely magnificent for their own particular job, but that they could
tackle any emergency that came along.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] For list of an East Indiaman’s sails, see Appendix.
CHAPTER X
MIGHTY MERCHANTMEN
Most of the vessels in this fleet of East Indiamen had been built at
the Blackwall yard, or at least refitted there. In the year 1789 the
East India Docks were brought into being, or rather begun, for they
were not opened for another couple of years. This wet dock had become
very necessary, for the East Indiamen had no accommodation provided
for them now that they had become so big. And as long as they lay out
in the river a good deal of their valuable cargoes was subject to
pilfering. A joint-stock company was formed with a capital of £200,000,
and it was decided that the hatches of every ship arriving from either
India or China should be locked down before the ship reached Gravesend,
and that the captain and one officer should remain on board until the
ship was moored in the docks and the keys of the hatches handed over to
an officer of the East India Company.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the price of building these
ships was £13 12_s._ 6_d._ a ton. By 1803 it had gone up to £19. Five
years later there were ten of these ships lost; in fact the first
decade of the new century was unfortunate generally. There were losses
owing to disasters at sea, and the French war paralysed the Indian
trade. But the Blackwall yard was kept busy, and in 1813 it built ten
frigates for the British Government of from 1078 to 1571 tons, owing
to the lessons which had been learnt from the American frigates. Having
built so many East Indiamen, this mercantile yard was eminently fitted
for constructing such craft. And now that the firm consisted of Sir
Robert Wigram, George Green, Money Wigram and Henry Loftus Wigram, we
can see the time approaching when the famous Blackwall frigates were to
make their appearance, though we shall not come to them immediately.
In 1814 was launched for the East India Company the 1263-ton _Lady
Melville_, and the firm of Wigrams & Greens was now making a great
deal of money. Three years later came the fine 1325-ton _Waterloo_.
The only other port in the kingdom that in any way rivalled London was
Liverpool. In 1751 there were only 220 ships belonging to Liverpool,
but the opening of the American trade five years later gave it a great
impetus. Then came those years of war which checked this, but on the
resumption of peace in 1815 the Mercantile Marine received a wonderful
impetus which has culminated in the magnificent Atlantic liners of
to-day. There was the great industrial awakening in Yorkshire and
Lancashire, a big trade was to be built up with America, and the haven
of the Mersey was geographically suitable for the exports and imports.
Britain was supreme at sea, foreign shipping had almost disappeared,
the demand for tonnage was increasing rapidly, and the Mercantile
Marine was very much encouraged. In fact, from 1815 to 1860 the service
passed through the most popular days of its long career.
The first thirty years of the nineteenth century, just before the
Indian monopoly was lost, saw the East India Company ships at their
very best. We have spoken of the “Merchant Service” as a generic term,
for convenience; but, strictly speaking, it pertained to the service
in the ships of the East India Company, to distinguish it from service
in the Free Traders and the Royal Navy. During this time to be able
to get into the company’s service was about as good as a commission
in the Navy. The ships themselves were as fine as any naval corvette,
with similar discipline and similar personnel. Run like men-of-war,
owned by a very ancient and wealthy company of unique character, the
officers were of a social status equal to their cousins and brothers
in His Majesty’s vessels. It was only when this old monopoly was taken
away, and the romantic mixture of trade and sea-adventure gave way to
keen competition in the race for wealth, that ships, officers, men and
methods became of a different standard for a time. But this is always
excepting the famous Blackwall frigates, which were destined to keep up
the fine traditions of the old Indiamen.
An officer in the East India Company was made to realise that he was
being honoured to be allowed to enter such a service. The captains
and first four officers were always sworn in before being allowed to
proceed to duty on board. They enjoyed the very lucrative privilege
of being able to participate in the company’s monopoly. The captain
of a 755-ton ship and upwards, for instance, was allowed as much as
fifty-six tons for his private trade, and he could even do better than
this by using as dunnage bamboos which could be sold in London. From
China he could bring home 9336 lbs. Therefore, although his pay was
only £10 a month—and we must not forget that a sovereign in those days
was worth very much more than it is to-day—the captain was able to
make very nice profits. The officers were also allowed a liberal amount
of wine, beer, butter, cheese, spirits and groceries. No wonder that an
officer was so often able to retire after a very few voyages and buy a
ship for himself.
The 1200-ton East Indiaman carried a captain, six mates, surgeon,
purser, boatswain-gunner, master-at-arms, midshipmen, caulker, cooper,
cooks, carpenters, quartermasters, sailmaker, armourer, butcher, baker,
poulterer, officers’ servants, stewards; the crew numbering a hundred
and thirty. No one could become captain unless he had voyaged to and
from India or China as chief or second mate. These officers were better
seamen than navigators, but navigation was still crude and somewhat
unscientific in those days. The full uniform of the captain was a fine
blue coat with black Genoa velvet round the cuffs, black velvet lapels,
black velvet panteen cape. The gilt buttons bore the company’s crest.
Whenever officers appeared before the Court of Directors they were
compelled to wear full uniform, but undress uniform when appearing
before the Committee.
Strict instructions were given to the captain that his new hands were
to wear the clothes provided by the company. The pay of the “foremast
men” was £2 5_s._ a month, but in addition to this they were entitled
to a pension from what was known as the Poplar Fund. Any captain,
officer or man who had served aboard these ships for eight years and
had regularly contributed to the fund was entitled to a pension. The
size of the pension was based on the amount of capital which an officer
possessed. Thus, if a captain said he was not worth £2500, or £125 a
year, he received a pension of £100. Allowances were made to the widows
and orphans of those who had served the company for seven years, and if
a man had been wounded or maimed so as to be incapable of further sea
service he was qualified for a pension even if he had not served eight
years.
We mentioned some time back the fine East Indiaman _Warren Hastings_.
In the engagement which is to be described she lost her purser and six
men, and thirteen were wounded, including her chief, third and sixth
officers and surgeon’s mate. Therefore, although these were really
merchant ships, built to carry cargoes, with neither the facilities nor
the crew of a man-of-war, yet there was always the possibility of the
personnel being killed or disabled for life. In the case of the _Warren
Hastings_, extra special trouble had been taken to enable her to
defend herself against any French frigate she might meet. She mounted
twenty-six 18-pdrs. on her main or lower deck, fourteen on her upper
deck, and four 12-pdrs. on her poop. She left England in February 1805
and reached China, then left again for home, but in a less suitable
condition of defence; for of her main-deck ports four had been caulked
up so as to give space for a storeroom, and the four guns had been
placed in the hold. Of her crew, forty Chinamen remained at Canton, and
a British man-of-war had pressed eighteen of her English seamen. Four
of her upper deck guns had also been stowed below. She therefore now
mounted only thirty-six guns.
It was on June 21 at 7.30 a.m., when the ship was in Lat. 26° 13’ S.,
Long. 56° 45’ E. that _Warren Hastings_, steering W. by S. before a
strong breeze from N.E. by E., under a press of sail, sighted to the
south-west a strange ship under treble-reefed topsails and courses.
This was the French 40-gun frigate _Piémontaise_, 1093 tons, with a
crew of 385, and able to fire a broadside of twenty-three guns, against
the _Warren Hastings_’ eighteen. The latter had a tonnage of 1856, but
a crew of only 138. The Frenchman had twenty-eight 18-pdrs. on her
main deck. She also carried eighteen other guns on her quarter-deck,
a total of forty-six carriage-guns. But she also carried swivels and
musketoons in her tops and along her gunwales. On each fore and main
yard-arm there was a tripod to contain a 5-cwt. shell, so that if she
got alongside her enemy its fusee could be lit by a man lying out on
the yard, and it would then be allowed to fall on the enemy’s deck, and
after its explosion the French would be able to rush on board. It was
thus in idea a revival of mediævalism. The historian James even went so
far as to refer to the Frenchmen as being “armed more like assassins
than men-of-war’s men; each having, beside the usual boarding weapons,
a poniard struck through the button-holes of his jacket.”
Thus, in every respect except tonnage the East Indiaman was a more
powerful vessel, and the preliminary tactics are interesting. At
9 a.m., when the Indiaman was well on her weather-quarter, the
Frenchman shook out the reefs from her topsails and stood towards the
merchantman, who held on her course. Half an hour later the frigate set
her t’gallant sails and stuns’ls, and at 10 a.m. hoisted the British
blue ensign and pendant. There was nothing wrong in this _ruse de
guerre_, and often during the war of 1914-1918 British ships hoisted
neutral colours _before_ opening fire on German submarines. _Warren
Hastings_ suspected the frigate was not a British man-of-war, but
hoisted her colours and made her private signal. For, in order that
East Indiamen might be able to make themselves known on the high seas
to British men-of-war, a special code of signals was always arranged by
the Admiralty during war-time. This code was sent sealed to the Secret
Committee of the company and then handed over to the commanding officer
of each ship.
The Frenchman took no notice of the signals, continued rapidly to
approach, so that at 11 a.m. the Indiaman shortened sail and cleared
for action: it was quite obvious now what was going to happen. At noon
the frigate took in her stuns’ls, staysails and mainsail, and then
hauled down British colours and hoisted French. After opening fire and
disabling part of the Indiaman’s rigging, the Frenchman again attacked,
this time killing and wounding several of the merchantman’s crew,
badly damaging the foremast, cutting away all the foreshrouds on the
port side and the ensign. The latter was quickly hoisted again at the
maintopgallant masthead.
A third attack followed, during which the _Warren Hastings_’ foremast
was finally crippled. Thus, owing to the wind and heavy sea, the latter
could carry sail on only her main and mizzen masts, and now opened
fire. A hot engagement followed, and unfortunately her mainmast was
now damaged as well as her standing and running rigging, besides the
further loss of men killed and wounded. The fifth attack found her with
only the main topsail set, and the enemy poured in a terrible fire,
which knocked the spanker boom into splinters and carried away the
mizzen-mast, which, falling forward, disabled every remaining effective
gun on the upper deck. Troubles came not singly, for the lower deck
was on fire, the rudder was rendered useless, and whilst the surgeon
was operating, a shell entered and destroyed all his instruments. For
four hours and a half the Indiaman had sought to defend herself, but
in spite of the zeal and perseverance of her officers and men she was
compelled in her crippled state to lower her colours.
Then, being thoroughly unmanageable, the Indiaman, with the heavy sea
running, happened to fall off, and crashed alongside the _Piémontaise_,
who was to leeward. Thereupon a number of Frenchmen leapt aboard the
merchantman with daggers and threatened to kill the lot, dragged the
captain about the ship and accused him of having tried to ram the
frigate so as to cripple her masts; and then stabbed the captain,
whereupon he fainted through loss of blood. The second officer,
surgeon, and a midshipman and boatswain’s mate were similarly stabbed.
Presently this fury died down, the Frenchman took the Englishman in tow
and both arrived at the Isle of France on July 4.
Thus, life in these merchant ships, although well rewarded, was at any
time during those long years of hostilities liable suddenly to become
most exciting. Ships and men were sent to the bottom or taken captive,
but the service went on. Lest the reader should imagine these incidents
isolated events, let the following be related. On May 2, 1809, a small
squadron of homeward-bound Indiamen had cleared the Sandheads of Bengal
River, escorted by H.M. sloop _Victor_. After three weeks the latter,
in dark and squally weather of the night of the 24th, parted company.
By the 30th, owing to stress of weather, two ships had left the convoy,
and there now remained only the _Streatham_, _Europe_ and _Lord Keith_
in company. The first two were 820-ton craft; the third was a vessel of
600 tons. The first two carried thirty guns apiece; the _Lord Keith_
had not more than twelve.
At five-thirty on the morning of May 31, when in Lat. 9° 15’ N., Long.
90° 30’ E., these three were on the starboard tack with the wind S.W.
by S. when a strange ship was seen seven miles off to the west of
south. This was the French 40-gun frigate _Caroline_, which mounted
forty-six guns in addition to her swivels. She had been cruising off
the Sandheads and had captured a few ships. Subsequently she had
learned from an American ship, the _Silenus_, which had sailed from
the Sandheads, of the number and probable route of the Indiamen.
But when first sighted the _Caroline_ was taken by the Indiamen for
the _Victor_. _Streatham_, being the senior ship, made the private
signal about 6 a.m., but having got no answer from the Frenchman,
signalled the other two to form into line, _Lord Keith_ leading,
followed by _Streatham_ and _Europe_, but the two last mentioned were a
considerable distance apart. Half an hour later the _Caroline_ hoisted
colours and attacked _Europe_, who quickly returned the fire. At the
end of half an hour the latter was disabled. Most of her guns were
put out of action, yards, foremast, sails and rigging cut to pieces
and hull damaged in several places. And then the enemy raked her from
forward and proceeded to deal with _Streatham_, which by eight o’clock
was so utterly crippled that she had to lower colours. Meanwhile _Lord
Keith_ and _Europe_ had been firing at _Caroline_, who now recommenced
the action with the last mentioned. Presently _Europe_ closed
_Streatham_, but on learning that the latter had surrendered, and that
_Lord Keith_ had escaped, running before the wind, also determined to
up helm. Then _Caroline_, after securing _Streatham_, went in chase
and captured _Europe_. On account of the leaking condition which the
two prizes were now in, it took three days to get them in a seaworthy
condition, but on July 22, with their valuable cargoes, they were
brought by _Caroline_ and anchored in the Bay of St. Paul, Isle of
Bourbon. It had been a heavy loss to the East India Company, though the
gallant merchant captains, with their ill-armed and badly-manned ships
(the crews consisting partly of cowardly Portuguese and lascars), had
done all that was possible. The one consoling feature was that _Lord
Keith_ managed to get right away, and actually arrived safely back in
English waters.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
A CONVOY OF EAST INDIAMEN.
H.E. India Company’s ship “Inglis” leaving St. Helena in July 1830,
with H.M. Frigate “Ariadne” and the H E. India Company’s ships
“Windsor,” “Waterloo,” “Scaleby Castle,” “General Kyd,” “Farquharson”
and “Lowther Castle.”]
Similarly on July 3, 1810, three outward-bound Indiamen, the _Ceylon_,
_Windham_ and _Astell_, each of them of 800 tons, were about thirty
miles west of the island of Mayotta on a northerly course with a fresh
S.S.E. breeze when three ships were sighted close-hauled on the port
tack. These were the two French frigates _Bellone_, _Minerve_, and the
recaptured ship-corvette _Victor_, about nine miles distant, and it was
about six o’clock, just as the day was dawning. Half an hour later the
senior Indiaman _Ceylon_ made the private signal, and, as no answer
was returned, the merchant ships prepared for action. Presently, as
_Astell_ signalled she was overpressed, the other two shortened sail.
Captain Meriton made the following signal from _Ceylon_: “As we cannot
get away, I think we had better go under easy sail, and bring them to
action before dark.” To this _Astell_ replied: “Certainly.” _Windham_
answered: “If we make all sail and get into smooth water under the
land, we can engage to more advantage.”
The wind increased so much that the Indiamen were compelled to
heave-to, and took in the third reef of their topsails. It was not an
ideal day for an engagement, as the ships heeled over so that they
could not keep open their lower-deck ports. Captain Meriton formed
his ships in line abreast, _Ceylon_ in the centre, and at 2.15 p.m.
_Minerve_ opened fire on _Windham_ and _Ceylon_. There was a heavy sea
running and the action became general. During the afternoon Captain
Hay of _Astell_ was severely wounded, and the command was taken over
by the chief mate. _Windham_ had her sails and rigging considerably
damaged, and about 4.30 p.m. a temporary lull occurred, when _Minerve_
carried away her main and mizzen topmasts. And then Captain Meriton was
wounded, so the command of _Ceylon_ devolved on her chief mate, who a
few minutes afterwards was himself wounded and was succeeded by the
second mate. This ship had received great punishment throughout the
engagement: her masts, sails and rigging were badly damaged, many of
her guns disabled, her hull so injured that she was making three feet
of water an hour; six of her people were killed and twenty-one wounded.
Therefore before half-past seven she hauled down her colours and was
taken prize. _Astell_, already much injured, put out her lights, made
sail and escaped during the extreme darkness of the night. _Windham_
was now left alone, and finding that she was too damaged to make sail,
continued the action to help _Astell’s_ escape, and then hauled down
her colours and was taken captive.
The captains, officers and men had fought very gallantly against the
French, who were in superior force, and the East India Company, who
always could afford to treat their servants handsomely, awarded each of
the three captains the sum of £500, with a fine reward for the officers
and men. On Captain Hay of the _Astell_ the company also settled a
pension of £460 a year, and distributed £2000 among the officers and
crew. Furthermore, the Admiralty, to show their appreciation of the
ship’s gallantry, granted to the crew a protection from impressment
for three years. One of the men, Andrew Peters, had bravely nailed the
pendant to the maintop masthead, and having done so was killed while
descending the rigging.
It is fine to read of the resource, the able seamanship and great
gallantry of these wonderful old ships right through two centuries
until well into a third. But there was a new era coming, and the
final link with Tudor romance and mediæval shipping ideas was just
about to be severed. Looking back on events, it seems to us moderns
perfectly amazing that the East India Company should have enjoyed
so rich and enormous a monopoly so long, and in the year 1814 they
lost this privilege so far as India was concerned. The result was
that a new impetus was given to shipbuilding and shipowning, and the
element of competition was introduced with free trade and no favour.
In the task of making the Mercantile Marine of Britain such a solid,
dignified, stately and honourable service for all those years the
company did much; nor is this influence by any means dead, for it set a
high standard for subsequent independent shipowners to follow, and it
permeates the big shipping lines of to-day. What the Orient had meant
in a small way to the Tudor and Stuart seamen and merchants, it was to
mean on a much bigger scale to the traders of the nineteenth century,
and the wealth of Great Britain was to benefit thereby.
From 1814 the owners of the Blackwall yard began to build East Indiamen
for themselves to own and manage. In 1824 they built the _Carn Brae
Castle_, 570 tons, which was the first ship expressly built for the
passenger trade to Calcutta, and the finest ship of her day. She was
lost rather unnecessarily by the officer of the watch allowing her to
stand too close into Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight, one day when the
captain and passengers were at dinner. In that same year Mr. Green had
purchased the _Sir Edward Paget_, which was the first of the well-known
passenger ships to India and Australia. She was elaborately fitted and
made quite a sensation. She was commanded by Captain Geary, R.N., and
in this connection the following true anecdote is recorded. The house
flag which she wore was a white ground with a red St. George’s cross
through the centre. One day, after arrival at Spithead, the Admiral at
Portsmouth sent his lieutenant off to inquire what ship was wearing an
admiral’s flag, and on learning that she was a merchant ship, at once
ordered it to be hauled down. A blue handkerchief was then sown on the
centre of the flag, and as this satisfied the lieutenant it was allowed
to be hoisted again, and continued to be the distinguishing flag of the
Wigram and Green ships until, some years later, the partnership in the
firm was dissolved.
After this ship returned to Blackwall from her first voyage, Mr.
Green proceeded on board to make his usual inspection, and, much to
his dismay, was received with manned yards, with a salute, and the
ship’s band playing “The Conquering Hero.” But the _Sir Edward Paget_
was not a man-of-war and Mr. Green was not an admiral; and it was all
very fine, but not suitable. He resented this kind of reception, and
the general man-of-war appearance everywhere on board so astonished
him, that he was not surprised also to find that when the accounts of
the voyage were balanced the style was not financially profitable. The
result was that a new captain came to the ship and there was a new set
of regulations before she went on her second voyage.
In 1825 a couple of 1325-ton ships were launched by the yard, and here
we get the final resemblance to the ships of the Caroline period, for
the figure-head, poop, decorations and so on have been considerably
modified. By the year 1830 the firm had ceased to build any more
vessels to be employed by the East India Company; for although that
corporation had lost its Indian monopoly, as already stated, it still
retained a like privilege in regard to China. But the public mind was
opposed to this being continued; in 1832 Parliament had to face the
question, and in April of 1834 the company lost its commercial charter
for ever. But, seeing this revolution was approaching, individual
firms had in the meantime been preparing to compete in this Eastern
trade. Not merely did the Greens and Wigrams from 1830 build ships for
themselves, but they ordered them from the Tyne firm of T. & W. Smith,
and this firm also began to own East Indiamen themselves in competition
with the Greens and Wigrams.
In 1831 the Blackwall firm consisted of George Green, Money Wigram,
Henry Loftus Wigram, Richard Green and Henry Green, but they were to
pursue a strange policy, which, if good for the Mercantile Marine, was
destined to ruin the firm. The owners of the Blackwall yard began to
build ships not for the firm, but for individual members of the firm—so
many for the Green family and so many for the Wigrams, but especially
for the former. Thus it came about that a Green fleet competed with
a Wigram fleet, whilst by the year 1841 the ships owned by the firm
itself numbered only two. Finally in 1843 the partnership was dissolved.
But in 1832 they launched the 577-ton _London_ for Money Wigram, and
this was the real pioneer of the celebrated Blackwall frigates of which
we shall speak in a later chapter. We thus enter on that last stage of
ship development which was to precede the golden age of the sailing
ship, when the clippers made eternal fame for themselves. This yard
was still the biggest private concern in Europe, though Liverpool as
a great port was now going ahead. The beginning of the American War
in 1812 had given it a serious set-back, but after peace came in 1814
there was a new era as well for the Atlantic shipping as for the East.
For America was going ahead. She had shown that she knew how to build
during the war frigates of an improved kind, and in peace she was now
producing better-designed merchantmen than ourselves.
In 1816 was inaugurated the famous Black Ball Line of New York packets,
which were the precursors of the present-day Atlantic liners. These
Black Ball liners were full-rigged ships of from 300 to 500 tons
register, with full bodies and bluff bows, and yet they averaged
at first only twenty-three days on the outward voyage to Liverpool
and forty-three days homeward-bound. This was the only means of
communication in those days between America and Liverpool, and in 1836
was started the Dramatic Line, consisting of 700-ton sailing ships. The
world’s trade was increasing, industrialism was prospering, the markets
of the whole world were now open to all, and there was a long spell of
peace ahead. Transatlantic shipping was encouraged so that these packet
ships increased in tonnage, and in 1846 the 1400-ton _New World_ was
built, being then the largest sailing ship in the world. Other famous
vessels were the _Isaac Webb_, _Albert Webb_ and _Guy Mannering_.
The ships of these two lines were exceedingly fine craft, and made
remarkable passages across to England, the Black Ball liners eventually
averaging twenty-one days and the Dramatic liners twenty and a half
days. The nineteenth century in regard to the sailing ship alone was
certainly a most wonderful period.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
A FINE PIECE OF SEAMANSHIP.
The “Chesterfield” packet (Captain Robert Lea Jones) rescuing the crew
of a sinking ship. About 1795.]
CHAPTER XI
PACKET SHIPS AND BRIGS
As far back as the reign of Elizabeth a State post-office was
instituted for foreign letters, for the reason that the merchants
now required it. Owing to England’s geographical position, this, of
course, connoted the employment of sailing ships. By 1635 the weekly
continental service was doubled and accelerated. This arrangement
improved during the seventeenth century, and there were packet stations
at Dover for France, Harwich and Yarmouth for Holland and Hamburg, and
at Holyhead and Milford for Ireland.
But it was Falmouth which became the headquarters for the post-office
packet service as far back as 1688. The reason for this is obvious
when you consider its location in regard to the Bay of Biscay, and
the facility with which even those unhandy sailing craft could come
in and out in all weathers and practically all winds. A very safe
harbour, with plenty of room and water, right at the western end of
the English Channel and easy of access, it was ideal for the departure
of travellers and mails for Spain and the West Indies. The result was
that, as the service became more numerous, shipyards were created
in Falmouth, inns were built for the travellers, and a seafaring
population grew up.
The North Sea packets were of about sixty tons, but the Falmouth
packets were of 200 tons and heavily armed. They were not owned by the
post-office, but hired by private contract, as the East India Company
used to charter their ships. In fact, never did the post-office own the
ships, although the officers and men were its servants, and not the
contractor’s. The Falmouth packet service began in a quiet way in 1688
with the hiring of two craft, and for years it was run at a loss. But
there were political reasons for keeping up connection with Spain, and
during the eighteenth century both the Spanish and West Indian trades
became important; and even by 1702 packet ships from Falmouth were
running to Barbados, Jamaica, the southern States of North America, to
Corunna in Spain, and in 1704 also to Lisbon. It was a separate method
of causing to grow up a body of fine seamen; it was one of the best
schools for encouraging navigation, which was still in a most crude
position; and generally it was one of the great influences towards
building up the Mercantile Marine. It was not until Cromwell’s time
that any real naval fighting service as distinct from the Merchant
Navy had come into being, and right up to the Napoleonic Wars the two
services were closely allied and practically interchangeable. We have
to remember also that merchantmen and packet ships had to fight enemy
warships whenever required. Of a peaceful voyage there was hardly such
a thing.
Such incidents as that of May 16, 1744, when the _Townshend_ packet
fought against the Spaniards; or of July 25, 1759, when the packet
_Fawkener_ was attacked by a large French sloop between Barbados and
Antigua, are by no means isolated. Indeed, although they were forbidden
to seek engagements and were reminded that their first duty was the
safety of the mails, yet if they saw a chance of obtaining wealth at
sea by attacking a likely ship, they did so in spite of any authority.
These men were, like the age in which they lived, a hardy, rough,
corrupt lot of dare-devils.
They carried cargoes of their own, contrary to regulations; they
stole, they smuggled, they mutinied—but we cannot go through the whole
decalogue. On the other hand, they were real sailormen, and the rule
that a packet was to put to sea from Falmouth immediately on receiving
the mails, whatever the wind might be, provided only she could carry a
double-reefed topsail, was maintained. The regularity of their voyages
was the nearest thing to the running of a modern steamship. In 1798
there were sixteen packet ships to keep up the Falmouth to West Indies
service, and “on the quiet” captains, officers and crews would take
out quantities of cheese, potatoes, boots, shoes and so on, sell them
on commission for English merchants, and then bring back such goods as
wines, lace, tobacco, brandy, which would be smuggled ashore and then
sold all over the country by special men. This went on until 1810, when
the Lisbon and West Indian packets were strictly forbidden to carry
on these trades. The order brought the crews up with a round turn,
and a terrible moan went about in disgust. Their wages were certainly
too low, and this was the means of remunerating themselves. Anger and
indignation finally culminated in a mutiny.
And yet the captains used to make no meagre living, even reckoned in
the money of the nineteenth century. They were paid £8 a month during
war-time and £5 in peace; but besides this they received large sums
in respect of the fares of passengers. One captain alone was making
£1000 a year by this means, and then there were the fees for carrying
bullion, to say nothing of their commission for selling goods, both
exports and imports. For instance, they were paid thirty-five guineas
by every passenger who proceeded from Falmouth to Gibraltar. By the
year 1808 there were thirty-nine packets at Falmouth—quite a fine fleet
for any one port in those days. Every week one sailed for Lisbon, one
for San Sebastian or other part of the north Spanish coast, whence
communication with the British Army in the Peninsula was maintained.
Each week, too, one packet sailed for the West Indies, whilst others
at longer intervals set forth towards the Mediterranean, Brazil,
Surinam, Halifax and New York. People were beginning to travel, and
between 2000 and 3000 passengers thus passed through Falmouth to and
from these ships yearly. It was a very encouraging factor for the
Mercantile Marine, especially as the Falmouth packets alone kept 1200
men permanently employed afloat.
Contemporary artists of the early nineteenth century have left for
us paintings showing some of the North Sea packet ships. Turner’s
well-known picture in the National Gallery of the English packet
arriving in Calais in 1803 is an instance. These craft were never
bigger than about eighty tons, and during the French wars ran for
a time between Yarmouth and Hellevoetsluis in Holland. But a West
Indian packet such as the _Duke of Marlborough_ with her 1804 tons and
brig-rigged, was a very different sort of ship. And in the very year
when Commodore Dance put Admiral Linois to flight, this packet ship,
whilst bound for the Leeward Islands, was in the month of April chased
by a schooner and captured.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN W. ROGERS,
Of the “Windsor Castle” packet. About 1808.
CAPTAIN JOSEPH HUDDART, F.R.S.,
Who served in the H.E. India Company’s service for ten years. He lived
1741-1816, and was a celebrated hydrographer.
(_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._)]
As mentioned in the last chapter, the famous American packets which
ran from New York to Liverpool, came out in 1816. This famous Black
Ball Line was for years the pioneer, and began with five 400-ton ships.
During the first ten years these vessels averaged twenty-three days on
the eastward and forty-three days on the westward voyage, the fastest
eastward being the passage of _Canada_ in fifteen days eighteen hours.
These ships were flush-decked. Between the foremast and mainmast was
the galley, and in the long-boat were carried the sheep and pigs and
fowls for the ship’s food. A cow was also carried in a house over the
main hatch, and the passengers’ cabins were aft.
These liners carried a black ball painted on the foresail and were
commanded by real hard-case captains who had caused much anxiety to
British shipping whilst in command of privateers during the war of
1812. In these ships passengers, mails and bullion were conveyed, two
vessels leaving each month. In 1821 two more lines were started, one
of which was the Red Star Line of packets to Liverpool. After the
Dramatic Line was founded in 1836 the packet ships gradually increased
to about 1000 tons, and the competition had become keener, packets now
running from North America to Liverpool, Havre and London. Captain A.
H. Clark, in his interesting volume The _Clipper Ship Era_, states
that all packet ships carried a white light at the bowsprit cap from
sunset to sunrise; but of course side-lights had not yet come in. It
is interesting to remark in this connection that probably the first
institution of side-lights was in 1834, for from January 1 the City of
Dublin Steam Company began to use a white light at the foremast head,
a red on the larboard bow and a white on the starboard bow, the two
latter being attached to the houses forward of the paddleboxes. Then
for a few years there was a diversity in practice, each company doing
what it thought best in this respect to minimise risk of collision at
sea.
Up to 1846 the system in use by the British packet ships of Liverpool
was to have a white light under the cross-trees below the foot of the
foresail, with a red light on the port paddlebox and a white light
on the starboard paddlebox, but apparently the Milford steam packets
carried a red light on the starboard bow, a green light on the port bow
and a “common light” (presumably white) at the foremast head. It is
claimed that this was also the fashion adopted by the P. & O. Company.
In 1846 the Royal Mail Steam Company’s ships carried masthead and bow
lights, but colourless. The subject is a little difficult to elucidate,
but it is certain that there were in existence different usages as late
as this date, and it was not until at least two years later that any
sort of uniformity came in. It has been stated by another authority
that it was only as a result of the collision between the Collins
liner _Arctic_ and the French ship _Vesta_ on September 21, 1854, when
the former foundered with the loss of 323 lives out of 368, that the
carrying of side-lights was made compulsory and not optional.
Even in the American packets most of the crew were British, and often
enough gaol-birds of the worst type, but the captains were pretty tough
and accustomed to handling men as well as ships, and the mates were of
the same order. These ships could reel off their twelve knots pretty
regularly, and sometimes did the voyage in sixteen days. With their
high-steeved bowsprits, their black hulls and square painted ports,
and carrying plenty of canvas, even to skysails and stuns’ls in summer
weather, they used to race against each other, sometimes even for very
high stakes. For quite a long time the Atlantic packet ships were able
to laugh at the steamships, but gradually from 1840 the progress of the
marine engineer and shipbuilder wore down the competition. Regularity
and reliability of running with increased comfort were bound to have
their influence on the carrying of mails, passengers and merchandise.
Ralph Waldo Emerson in his _English Traits_ has left on record an
account of his passage across the Atlantic from Boston in 1847 aboard
the packet ship _Washington Irving_. She was of 750 tons register, the
mainmast measured 115 feet from deck to truck, and the length of the
ship from stem to stern on deck was 155 feet. “The shortest sea-line,”
he goes on to remark, “from Boston to Liverpool is 2850 miles. This
a steamer keeps, saving 150 miles. A sailing ship can never go in
a shorter line than 3000, and usually it is much longer. Our good
master keeps his kites up to the last moment, studding sails alow and
aloft, and by incessant straight steering never loses a rod of way....
Since the ship was built, it seems, the master never slept but in his
day-clothes whilst on board.... Hour for hour, the risk on a steamboat
is greater; but the speed is safety, or twelve days of danger instead
of twenty-four.”
In one week the _Washington Irving_ made 1467 miles, but to Emerson,
as to most passengers in those days, this form of travel was anything
but pleasant. “I find the sea-life an acquired taste,” he sums up
rather sadly, “like that for tomatoes and olives. The confinement,
cold, motion, noise and odour are not to be dispensed with. The floor
of your room is sloped at an angle of twenty or thirty degrees, and
I waked every morning with the belief that someone was tipping up my
berth. Nobody likes being treated ignominiously, upset, shoved against
the side of the house, rolled over, suffocated with bilge, mephitis
and stewing oil. We get used to these annoyances at last, but the
dread of the sea remains longer.... Such discomfort and such danger
as the narratives of the captain and mate disclose are bad enough
as the costly fee we pay for entrance to Europe; but the wonder is
always new that any sane man can be a sailor.” Emerson found the worst
inconvenience was the lack of light in the cabin, but the fifteen days
from the time they left soundings were to him long, joyless and severe.
The American poet James Russell Lowell has left us a character sketch
of a chief mate whom he describes as “not an American, but I should
never have guessed it by his speech, which was the purest Cape Cod,
and I reckon myself a good taster of dialects.... He used to walk the
deck with his hands in his pockets, in seeming abstraction, but nothing
escaped his eye.... He is as impervious to cold as the polar bear. On
the Atlantic, if the wind blew a gale from the north-east, and it was
cold as an English summer, he was sure to turn out in a calico shirt
and trousers, his furzy brown chest half bare, and slippers without
stockings. But ... he comes out in a monstrous pea-jacket here in the
Mediterranean when the evening is so hot that Adam would have been glad
to leave off his fig-leaves.... He ... always combs his hair, and works
himself into a black frock-coat (on Sundays he adds a waistcoat) before
he comes to meals, sacrificing himself nobly and painfully to the
social proprieties. The second mate, on the other hand, who eats after
us, enjoys the privilege of shirt-sleeves, and is, I think, the happier
man of the two.”
But besides the shipping engaged in the East Indian, West Indian,
American, Spanish, Mediterranean and North Sea routes, the Mercantile
Marine was being built up by the fishermen and coasters, and we should
be providing an inaccurate picture if we did not consider them. In
an earlier chapter we saw how important were the fishing fleets down
to the end of the seventeenth century, and what a backbone they
have always been to the navies and Mercantile Marine. In 1704 Queen
Anne reorganised the various laws relating to the herring fishery
and permitted the use of all harbours and shores for landing fish
on payment of reasonable dues. A certain number of foreigners were
being employed by the British to help with the fishing, but in 1747
the Dutch still had 3000 herring vessels and were employing 40,000
fishermen. This was a great falling off since 1679, but still it was a
considerable industry, and bringing in £5,000,000. Not without reason
these Hollanders called their herring fisheries their gold mine, and
in the mid-eighteenth century they were employing over 1000 Englishmen
in their craft. Thus each nation learned a good deal of each other’s
methods, and this standardisation has continued to this day.
Somehow the English fishery companies continued to be unsuccessful, for
in October of 1750 one more was incorporated, but the craft and gear
were purchased at expensive rates, more fish were obtained than could
be sold, and thus the company failed. But it was not merely the Dutch
who were rivalling the English and Scottish fishermen. During the
latter half of the century the Swedes and the Danes were very active.
In fact, British men-of-war had to be requested to afford protection
against the encroachments of foreigners. The British fishing craft were
often badly built, of ill design and not well-found, but legislation
was introduced to assist them. In 1771 a bounty of thirty shillings a
ton for seven years was granted to all decked vessels of from twenty
to eighty tons, provided they were of British origin and ownership and
engaged in the herring fishery. These craft were to meet for fishing at
Yarmouth, Leith, Inverness, Bressay Sound, Kirkwall, Oban, Campbelltown
and Whitehaven. But it is rather curious that the Scottish fishing
was abandoned to foreigners, who brought in the catches, and then the
fish were exported to the British West Indies as food for slaves; but
from 1809 the Scottish fishing began to prosper once more. During
the nineteenth century the rights of the European States over their
territorial waters were defined, for the constant quarrels between the
French and British fishermen as to where they could dredge for oysters
off the coast were somewhat of a nuisance.
It is since the Sea Fisheries Act of 1868 that all fishing vessels have
been compelled to be registered and licensed, and then in 1886 was
instituted a Fishery Department in the Board of Trade. The twentieth
century has been notable for the way steam and motors have gradually
begun to take the place of sailing craft. The steam drifters are able
to follow the herring down the coast, but the big steam trawlers are
the principal fishing craft in the British Isles to-day. During the
war most of the British steam fishing craft were taken up by the
Admiralty for mine-sweeping or anti-submarine work, but by the year
1921 the national fishing had recovered so much that the total landings
amounted to over £16,000,000. It is from the North Sea trawlers that
most of the fish still comes, and of this a considerable quantity is
caught by the trawlers from Hull and Grimsby. One unfortunate result of
the war has been the loss of the Russian and much of the German trade;
for in 1913 the United Kingdom exported £5,500,000 worth of cured and
salted herring, of which Russia and Germany together took 80 per cent.
To-day from Hull alone there are about 250 steam trawlers fishing and
employing about 3000 hands aboard. If you add to this the number of
steam, motor and sailing fishing craft from the other ports, it is at
once obvious that these fleets form a very considerable portion of the
Mercantile Marine.
We may take Hull as representative of modern fishing, but it is only as
the result of centuries of experience. Certainly as far back as 1535
the quantity of fish there landed was considered so important as to
require an Act of Parliament to regulate the trade. Perhaps the least
known was the very important Hull whaling trade, which was carried
on for two and a half centuries until about 1868, when, owing to the
scarcity of whales, the industry died out, the last whaling voyage
being made by the _Truelove_, which had been built in Philadelphia 104
years previously. This vessel made seventy-two whaling voyages, during
which she took about 500 whales, and besides these activities filled in
the time by general trading, in the Oporto wine trade, and even as a
“Letter of Marque.” Other whalers also went to the Arctic from Whitby,
Scarborough and London. You may guess how important was the industry
when we state that in the year 1821 no fewer than sixty-one whalers
left Hull, thirty-two for the area between Greenland and Spitzbergen,
and twenty-nine for the Davis Straits.
But there was still another school for seamanship, and it was one of
the most important sections of the Mercantile Marine, for two reasons:
it not merely trained some of our finest officers and men, but it was
until late in the nineteenth century a wonderful fleet of coasters,
which passed away only at the coming of the steam collier. We refer
to those brigs which used to bring coal from the Tyne to the Thames.
These little two-masted vessels were manned by crews who were paid by
the voyage. The result was that they were interested in making a quick
passage. A contemporary writer, who was himself a privateer for a time,
regarded these collier crews as the most perfect in working their ships
in narrow channels, as the East Indiamen were the finest in the open
seas.
This was in the eighteenth century, but from the time of the Stuarts
these _Geordie_ brigs had been plying their trade and building up a
fine body of seamen who formed a kind of pool from which ocean-going
ships could obtain officers and crews for bolder enterprises. In this
branch of the Mercantile Marine the famous discoverer, Captain Cook,
learnt his seamanship, which was to lead to such important events. You
may remember that whilst still in his teens he became apprenticed for
three years in 1746 to the Whitby owners of the 450-ton vessel which
carried coal from Newcastle to London, and after two years he served
for a time in the 600-ton collier _Three Brothers_. He then served
aboard her in the Norwegian and Baltic trades. In the seventeenth
century these “coal cats,” as they were called, were sometimes
three-masted vessels with square mainsail, square foresail, lateen
mizzen, and sometimes a main topsail, but of course no triangular
headsails, which did not come in until later.
Captain H. Y. Moffat, who was born in 1844 and served as a boy in
the collier-brig _Premium_, has published some interesting facts
illustrating this kind of seafaring. His pay was £8—not a week, nor a
month, but a year. The second year he was to have £10, and the third
year £12. Each of these brigs carried a couple of boys, though the
rest of the crew were still paid by the voyage. They lived in a dirty,
dark, small fo’c’sle, and during the summer the brig would often run
coals across to Hamburg and Rotterdam, but in the winter to London from
South Shields. If the surroundings were hardly ideal for a boy, and
the pay utterly inadequate, it was a splendid chance for him to learn
his seamanship in a rough school. If the brig had a head wind anywhere
between Yarmouth and London—that is to say, among all those shoals,
these lads were kept busy heaving the lead all the time night and day;
for in those times there were no gas-buoys.
As to the men, they knew their job perfectly, but they could neither
read nor write. They went aboard the ship with their marlin-spike,
pricker, palm, rubber, sail-hook, needles, etc., and even with
a well-scrubbed handspike for the windlass. Many of the modern,
dry-nursed steamship seamen, better educated and better fed though
they are, would have no right to be reckoned in the same category of
efficiency as these rough mariners, who still used the old-fashioned
hour and half-hour sand-glasses in their brigs. It was one of the
most glorious sights to see a fleet of these colliers beating up the
Thames. A waterman was always employed to assist each brig working
up the river, and he would come aboard anywhere between Woolwich and
Greenwich. If they were beating up with the flood tide, there might
be fifty or a hundred brigs all of a bunch, and it would often happen
that a brig could not fore reach because of the colliers just ahead.
The waterman would therefore put the helm down, let her come up into
the wind, and shake, but not so long as to lose way. This was known as
a “waterman’s nip,” and with great care he could make the brig take as
long to reach from one side of the river to the other as would allow
the crew time to eat their dinner. The collier crews were the smartest
men afloat for breaking out the anchor, for the reason that in working
their way in and out of so many narrow channels they frequently had to
bring up. It was always said that whenever an ex-collier’s crew shipped
aboard another vessel the windlass required only half the men to work
it.
Thus, everywhere the mariner in his own particular sphere was an
expert at his job, and though he could never suspect it, he was making
history, helping on the development and civilisation of the world. It
was a lawless, irreligious, even blasphemous age in which he lived,
and it is easy enough to criticise him for his wild excesses. But,
having regard to the morals of the time, his poor pay, the disgraceful
conditions of service, and the hard life which he was compelled to
endure, is it to be wondered at that when he came ashore he was dragged
into debauchery? The responsibility rests largely on those who
enriched themselves by his bravery, his seamanlike skill and devotion
to duty. There is not one of us to-day who is not a debtor to these
old-time mariners for what they have done on our behalf, no matter what
their ship.
CHAPTER XII
THE SAIL-CARRIERS
If you set aside the forty years from 1837 to 1877 you cover the
period which is unsurpassed for the glories of the sea. It is a period
when the Mercantile Marine in every ocean rose to such a standard
of seamanship as was never seen before nor will ever be witnessed
again. It is a time when the triumph of the shipwright and the skill
of the sailor combined to bring about the golden age. Every log-book,
ship-illustration or reminiscence that bears on this epoch should be
regarded with the utmost care and preserved for the wonderment of
posterity, for at present we are living so close to this epoch that we
hardly appreciate its worth. Those who come after us will rightly envy
us for having seen at least some of the ships and spoken with those who
handled them. For it was a time when wooden ships were run by men of
iron.
The traditions inherited from the old East India Company after the
latter had lost its monopoly in India and China were too noble and
inspiring to be dissipated at once. The high grade of officers and
men remained for a long time a standard, especially when the captain
of an East Indiaman even as late as about 1830 was making anything
between £6000 and £10,000 a voyage. So, too, the Blackwall yard still
retained its name for building the best ships. And though they had
ceased to construct the stately but slow vessels which had been good
enough as long as the monopoly lasted, a big advance came in the year
1837, when Richard Green launched the 818-ton _Seringapatam_. She was,
in fact, the first of a new order of things. In her the double stern
and galleries were abandoned, and owing to her finer lines she became
famous for her quick and regular passages to the East, and was destined
to be the model for many vessels to follow. It was such men as Green,
Wigram, Somes, Dunbar, Baines and others who built up the Mercantile
Marine after the East India Company left the sea; for these men saw
their grand opportunity, and seized it. Most of these purchased some of
the best of the company’s ships. The _Earl of Balcarres_, for instance,
was sold for £10,700, and she voyaged for fifty-two years before she
became a hulk. The same price was paid for that fine ship the _Thames_;
the _Lady Melville_ fetched £10,000, the _Buckinghamshire_ £10,550
and others realised between £4000 and £10,000. In certain cases the
company, seeing their approaching fate, began to sell as far back as
1830.
Some of the captains, officers and men from the honourable company
were now taken on by these enterprising new shipowners about to enjoy
the benefits of free trade. But not more than one-fifth of these
“old-timers” changed over to the new régime, at any rate straight away.
Why? Firstly, these private owners were not too anxious to employ a
personnel who had been accustomed to work in ships where expense had
not been of the first consideration. Secondly, some officers thought it
beneath their dignity to serve in “free trade” vessels, and in any case
their remuneration could not be as high as had been possible during
the company’s extravagant existence. So the captains and officers
appealed to their late employers for pensions. They had entered the
East India Company’s service expecting provision for life, but now
they found themselves awkwardly placed. Not without reluctance the
company eventually decided to grant compensations to all commanders and
officers who had been in their employ for five years from April 22,
1834. Every commanding officer therefore received £1500 and the other
officers received proportionate amounts. But, in addition to this, each
commander also received £4000 for three unexpired voyages, £3000 for
two voyages and £2000 for one voyage, which they would have made had
they continued in the service. Nor was that all; for those commanders
who had served for ten years were given a pension for life of £250 a
year, the chief mates getting £160 a year, and so the scale ranged
down to the carpenters and gunners. The only condition was that these
assured the company of their inability to obtain further employment,
and that any income which they possessed was to be in abatement of
these pensions. Thus, to the very end, the old East India Company
treated its officers and crews very handsomely, especially when we
remember the value of a sovereign in those days.
The _Seringapatam_ was the first of those famous Blackwall frigates
which were the direct descendants of the defunct East India Company.
The last of the series, also built by Green’s Blackwall yard, was the
_Melbourne_ (afterwards well known as the _Macquarie_), launched in
1875. Most of this historic fleet were built at the Blackwall yard,
at Smith’s Tyne yard, at Sunderland or in India, but especially
at Blackwall. They were all high-class ships which were run in a
high-class manner. The discipline was strict, the personnel was
excellent, and they were in every way worthy successors of the old
monopolists. If you talk to any of the officers still alive who served
in these Blackwallers, or read their reminiscences, you will understand
at once that it was thought an honour to be allowed into this new
service.
These ships differed from any other merchant vessels in that they
carried midshipmen and not apprentices. These midshipmen were drawn
from the same families who supplied officers to the Royal Navy, and
were known as “young gentlemen.” Very often in the case of a country
rector who had two sons, you find the eldest going into the Navy and
the younger into a Blackwall frigate. If a guardian could get a boy
into one of these ships, there was no further cause for worry: a fine
career was assured. He went to sea in what were happy ships and he
gradually rose in his profession until he was making about £5000 a
year in the case of the best captains. The guardian or parent had to
pay a premium of £60 a voyage for the young midshipman, but those were
the days when the commanding officers were the finest navigators in
the world and had time to instruct the aspirant. It was a life totally
different from that of a modern apprentice.
For some time the officers in these ships were allowed to wear the
lion and crown of the East India Company on their uniform buttons,
but eventually the house flags of the companies were substituted. A
great deal of the old dignity and semi-naval routine were retained in
this new service, with action stations and sail-drill. For they were
frigate-built and carried guns, so that they could readily be turned
into corvettes and be useful fighting units. In an interesting little
book entitled _Reminiscences of a Blackwall Midshipman_, published some
years ago, Mr. W. I. Downie remarked with pride: “It was a fine service
and afforded a good opening for younger sons, whose elder brothers
were in the Army or Navy, but whose parents could not very well spare
the means to dispose in the same way of all their sometimes numerous
progeny.” He himself joined up in the ’sixties, having considered
himself disappointed at not entering the Royal Navy, but lucky to
obtain a berth as midshipman in Green’s Blackwall frigate _Trafalgar_,
and bound to India. This ship was built in the year 1848, and was of
1038 tons, her construction being of teak.
When lying at anchor with a few guns on her maindeck and her boat-booms
swung out and boats in the water, she might be taken for a frigate,
even by a seafaring man, but for the house flag at her main. She had
painted ports, square yards and enormous whole topsails. In such a ship
no officer or man dared address a superior on duty without saluting.
It was because of this excellent discipline and semi-naval character
that these well-found ships created such a fine pride of service among
its personnel. We shall speak presently of the other development in
shipping which was to proceed collaterally with the Blackwallers,
but it may be mentioned here that the latter frequently used to race
in the ’sixties against the clippers met on the high seas. Downie
mentions that these frigates often were able to hold the clipper ships,
especially in hard winds, for though the Blackwallers had high bulwarks
and heavy sterns, which made them in comparison look clumsy, yet
underwater they had fine lines.
Every known device was resorted to in the effort to squeeze out an
extra half-knot, and the third mate of the Blackwaller would be sent
down with a gang of men to roust the lee cable out of the chain locker
and range it along the weather side of the deck. The fourth mate would
take another gang to pump fresh water out of the lee tanks into those
of the weather tanks that were empty. In light winds the hose would
be taken aloft to wet the sails—the old dodge of making the canvas
hold the wind better. Nor did they hesitate to race even against such
flyers as the crack clippers _Taeping_ and _Fiery Cross_, and in one
instance they competed with another sailing ship and beat her home by
twenty-four hours; and this after racing for 16,000 miles! Yes, they
were sail-carriers in those days. The Mercantile Marine was full of
expert seamen.
This _Trafalgar_, for instance, carried, besides her commander, five
mates, several midshipmen, a full crew, a bo’sun and his two mates,
carpenter, sail-maker, fiddler and cooper. The last two would seem
strange to a modern apprentice, but the former used to sit on the
capstan and fiddle while the hands were heaving up the anchor with an
endless “messenger,” and would provide the music for hornpipes danced
in the second dog-watch. The cooper was a necessary rating, for casks
and barrels were used a good deal, and when not wanted were taken to
pieces and reconstructed as required. The midshipmen received their
occasional invitations to dine with the captain, as to-day in the
naval service. Sundays and Thursdays were the occasions when there was
champagne at the captain’s table, and a midshipman thought himself
lucky if his turn to be invited occurred on one of these days.
The voyage was begun by the ship being towed out of dock down to
Gravesend, where she brought up for twenty-four hours to enable the
crew to get over their final shore carouse. The captain—in this case
a tall, thin man wearing an eyeglass, himself a scientist and a great
authority on the law of storms—would come on board, and the tug would
take the ship down to the North Foreland and then cast off. If it was
a fair wind the Blackwaller would then carry on down Channel. If it
was foul she would anchor and wait for a slant in the Downs. In spite
of their sailorlike, alcoholic weakness, these hands were very fine
fellows, specially selected, who had sailed in the old East Indiamen
or Blackwallers since boyhood, and very rarely did they ever serve in
other ships. There was, then, practically continuity of employment, and
it is the lack of this which in the twentieth century is the weakest
element of the Mercantile Marine.
In these ships there was nothing slovenly, and every one had to be
correctly and smartly uniformed. The officers’ cap in those days had
the old-fashioned peak at right angles, like that still worn by the
officers of the Dutch Navy to-day. Every morning the captain’s steward
would convey to the midshipmen the instructions as to what rig was
to be worn, as, for instance, in fine weather blue jackets, white
waistcoats and trousers. In many other merchant ships there was trouble
with the crew, which consisted of a mixture of pier-jumpers, gaol-birds
and the riff-raff of all the European ports; but it was seldom that
the Blackwall men gave any trouble. Every Sunday there was service on
the poop in fine weather, or in the saloon when the weather was bad,
and all hands were supposed to attend. In harbour the Blackwall ships
always looked smart and clean, with yards squared to mathematical
precision like a naval frigate.
As a sign of mourning the custom was to paint all the white parts of
the ship a pale blue, such as the white ribbon round the hull, the
lower masts, the boats, and so on. There were some ships in which
the discipline was stricter than in others, according to whether the
captain was more disposed towards man-o’-war fashion. Those ships which
ran to India were more strict in their discipline and more formal
in their routine than the vessels which sailed to Australia. In the
former the passengers consisted chiefly of Army officers and their
families, or civil servants going out to take up their appointments,
or of consumptives voyaging for their health. But in the Australian
ships life was more easy-going, with concerts, theatricals, dances, and
even bazaars. In both ships there was a good deal of fraternising and
philandering between the younger officers and the eternal feminine,
which was natural enough during those long voyages.
The late Captain W. B. Whall, who died not long since, served as
a midshipman in the Blackwaller _Hotspur_ during the ’sixties,
and fortunately has left behind in his _School and Sea Days_ some
interesting recollections. The commander of this famous 1000-ton East
Indiaman was Captain Henry Toynbee, F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S., uncle of Arnold
Toynbee, the social economist and philanthropist. Whall describes how,
after the _Hotspur_ had anchored off Gravesend, the captain would be
received on board in true naval style. This commanding officer, who,
by the way was uncle to Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the famous scout,
will always be remembered for his amazing skill as a navigator. Captain
Whall said he recollected on one occasion when the _Hotspur_ had been
ninety days out of sight of land, and had sailed over three oceans
bound for Calcutta direct, Toynbee came up on deck about 8 p.m. and
told the chief officer to send a man up to the foretopsail yard and to
order him to look two points on the starboard bow, and he would then
see the Lower Floating Light. The hand had barely got his head over
the sail when he cried from aloft: “Light two points away on starboard
bow.” And this was without having sighted anything since the Lizard!
In contrast to this fine ability of an East Indiaman navigator must
be placed the rough-and-ready methods of those fine but ignorant
skippers of the fruit-trade schooners which were built and sailed
like yachts and went down as far south as the Azores. Often when
full-rigged ships were blown by easterly gales from the western end of
the English Channel as far west as the Fastnet, these splendid little
fore-and-afters would be able to make excellent passages to windward.
In old waterside inns of the West country you may still see pictures
of these ships with the canvas cut in realistic fashion to obtain
verisimilitude. They made wonderfully fast passages, and they were
most perfectly handled, but the captains, not being capable always of
working out their longitude, used to hail any passing ship and hang out
a blackboard with the question: “What is your longitude?”
Such a ship as the _Hotspur_, well manned, well navigated, would go
round the Cape and land her forty passengers in Calcutta within three
months. They would come aboard at Gravesend with their own cabin
furniture, but included in the fare was an ample supply of liquor.
Often the charge for a stern cabin for a man and wife would be £300
from Calcutta to England, and the ship would have also probably 500
troops aboard, or a total of 600 souls. The decks would be encumbered
with sheep, hay, potatoes, bananas, hen-coops, and yet if any disaster
had occurred there was accommodation in the boats for not more than
about 100. Whall, who served in these ships for ten years, never once
saw a Blackwaller heave-to in a heavy gale. But that was because they
were well found and so well manned under the best commanders. In those
days the sailor ashore loved his grog too much, and when he left the
ship at the end of a voyage with probably £40 on him, he would proceed
to get drunk, then perhaps some one in the East End would drug him,
and finally, when he awoke up next day he would find himself without
so much as a penny. But at sea he was the best fellow in the world,
well-disciplined, able to go aloft in the heaviest weather to hand or
reef a sail and lay out on a yard. He was an expert at the wheel or
with the lead or marlin-spike, and a captain knew that his men could be
relied upon from the moment the ship left Gravesend. It was thus that
such ships as _Flying Cloud_, _Sovereign of the Seas_, _James Baines_
and _Marco Polo_ could on occasions reel off their eighteen knots, or
420 knots in the twenty-four hours. In fact during the ’fifties the
sailing ships could make passages as fast as any mail steamer afloat.
Every one who has had command of vessels and men realises how important
is the spirit of emulation and the pride of ship and service. Whall,
the son of a rector, remarked that all who served in these ships
looked down on the officers of the Liverpool contemporary sailing ships
as being less polished and wearing no uniform, though he admitted they
were perhaps smarter sailormen than the Blackwallers. In his memoirs
_My Life at Sea_, that experienced mercantile officer, Commander W.
C. Crutchley, R.N.R., says of a certain renowned clipper ship: “The
officers and men of that craft considered themselves very superior
beings to those who had not the good fortune to sail under the blue St.
Andrew’s Cross; but they, in their turn, were looked down upon by the
men sailing in the ships of Green, Dunbar, Wigram and Smith. In those
days it would have required a very careful M.C. to give the varying
grades of the Merchant Services their due order of preference.”
It was the same at Southampton at one time between the officers of
the Royal Mail and the P. & O. Lines, who would not foregather on any
account, owing to their mutual jealousies. But those were the days
when ship-love and pride of service were more accentuated than to-day.
And yet in even some of the contemporary crack steamships there was
plenty to find fault with, and Crutchley, who served in the Union liner
_Roman_, which ran to South Africa, complains that even in that ocean
steamship there was neither engine-room telegraph nor standard compass;
for orders were shouted down the engine-room skylight, and the ship was
steered from right on the poop, with a binnacle on either side, that on
the starboard being the one used for navigating.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “NORTHUMBERLAND.”
2,180 tons, 500 horse-power. Henry Skinner, Commander. About 1871. She
was one of Money Wigram & Sons’ Australian steamships. The famous house
flag will be seen at the main.]
We have digressed from our main theme in order to show the spirit
which actuated the Mercantile Marine at that important period which
followed the abolition of the monopoly and saw the numbers of
shipyards, ships and mariners rapidly increasing, thanks to freedom and
competition. It is now time for us to watch this progress in detail.
If we compare the _Seringapatam_ with one of the East India Company’s
ships of say 1826, we can see indeed more points of resemblance than
of difference. Both are frigates, each has a bluff bow and heavy stern
that remind us of the Stuart ships, yet in the new type inaugurated
by _Seringapatam_ it meant a daring advance to omit the heavy double
stern and quarter galleries. She still retained her ship rig, her white
ribbon, her square ports and her high-steeved bowsprit, but in her was
the first break, architecturally, with the olden times. The sailing
ship was now in a new era.
Even in the very year of Queen Victoria’s accession, Money Wigram
launched for the Australian trade the 293-ton _Emu_, for this was
beginning to open as an important lane of commerce. And in that same
year the yard built such different ships as the 461-ton whaler _Active_
and the 621-ton steamer _Neptune_, the latter for the General Steam
Navigation Company. It was a couple of years later that they launched
the 852-ton _Earl of Hardwicke_ for Richard Green. This ship was
originally fitted with paddles and 100-horse-power engines to be used
in calms, but they were found unsuitable and removed in the following
year. And then in 1839 they launched the _Owen Glendower_, which was
such a splendid sailing ship that foreign merchantmen used to salute
her with the respect as for a man-of-war. She was a sister ship of the
_Earl of Hardwicke_. In that year, too, they built the Opium clipper
_Moa_ for Jardine, Mattheson & Co., though we shall come to the
clipper ships presently. Three years later the Blackwall yard launched
the two magnificent 1223-ton flush-decked, frigate-built sister ships
_Queen_ and _Prince of Wales_, as well as the 449-ton _Sylph_.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
AUXILIARY S.S. “KENT.”
2,300 tons. G. Fairles Gibbs, Commander. Built and owned by Money
Wigram & Sons. About 1876.]
And here we come to another severing of olden ties, for this was the
last ship which was ever built by the firm of Green, Wigrams & Green.
In the following year the partnership expired, a wall was built through
the yard, and the western portion was made over to Money Wigram &
Sons, whilst the eastern half became the property of Richard and Henry
Green. Sentimentally it seemed a pity that after all those years the
separation should have taken place; but, as already foreshadowed, it
was bound to come, owing to the difference in interests. The firm had
become _individually_ interested in shipowning, and not collectively.
Thus Wigram never owned so large a fleet as Green, and where a firm is
divided against itself obviously it must come to an end before long.
Richard Green and Henry Green went on building and increasing their
ownership until the discovery of gold in Australia, when they launched
many ships to cope with the rush. Richard Green did not die until 1863,
and just before his death one of his ships had made a voyage to China.
In his life he did much to improve the Mercantile Marine, and it was he
who was the chief mover and first chairman of what was originally known
as the Thames Marine Officers’ Training Ship, better known to-day as
H.M.S. _Worcester_. In the year 1922 this ship celebrated its sixtieth
anniversary, and during its existence has been able to turn out 3000
officers for the Mercantile Marine, of whom so many distinguished
themselves during the Great War. Thus, directly through the Blackwall
yard there is an intimate connection between the merchant ships of the
time of Queen Elizabeth and those liners of to-day.
The two finest ships in the Mercantile Marine of 1851 were the East
Indiamen _Marlborough_ and _Blenheim_, owned by Messrs. T. & W. Smith,
who had begun running ships to the East soon after the monopoly had
gone, in competition with Green and Wigram. It was the gold-diggings
of South Australia and Victoria from 1851 onwards which made a sudden
demand for shipping passengers out from England: in fact by 1853 the
demand was greater than the supply. But the only suitable vessels
available for first- and second-class passengers were these famous
Blackwall frigates, and the Greens were thus in a position to transfer
some of their large fleet from the Calcutta to the Australian trade.
Money Wigram, not having yet become a large shipowner, began to build
for this Melbourne trade.
The Blackwall frigates were devoid of sheer, had long poops, short
maindecks, and were beautifully built of picked teak and oak. Green’s
ships were not as sharp-ended as Smith’s or Wigram’s, but Somes’ and
Dunbar’s were real old-fashioned, clumsy-bowed craft. The fastest of
Green’s ships were the _Alnwick Castle_, _Clarence_, _Windsor Castle_
and _Anglesey_. The fastest of Wigram’s fleet was the _Kent_. The old
East India Company’s influence for a time so dominated these Blackwall
frigates that dignity, comfort and safety first were rather the
mottoes of the fleet, unlike the clipper ships, always snugging down
for the night. Some of the best-known Green ships were the 835-ton
_Madagascar_, built in 1837, the 852-ton _Earl of Hardwicke_, already
mentioned, built in 1838, but afterwards wrecked on the South African
coast in 1863; the _Owen Glendower_, built in 1839, the _Agincourt_
(958 tons), in 1841, the _Prince of Wales_ (1223 tons), in 1842, the
_Monarch_ (1444 tons), in 1844, the _Alfred_ (1291 tons), in 1845, the
_Barham_ (934 tons), in 1846. The _Prince of Wales_ and _Queen_ of 1842
were both 1223-ton ships, the former built for Green and the latter for
Wigram at the Blackwall yard. Pierced for fifty guns and flush-decked,
they were ready with their crew of seventy-eight each to be turned into
naval corvettes at once.
The _Anglesey_, built in 1852, of 1018 tons, holds the record for
having made the biggest day’s run by a Blackwaller. This was 380
miles, and her passage from Melbourne to the Start in seventy-nine
days with a crew of forty-six was a remarkable achievement. Wigram’s
927-ton _Kent_, built in 1852, was invaluable during the gold rush
to Australia. She was one of the crack sailing ships in history, and
actually beat the tea-clippers. It was a great innovation when, in 1866
and 1868 respectively, the Blackwall yard built the 1451-ton _Superb_
and the 1458-ton _Carlisle Castle_, for both were of iron, and owing to
Richard Green’s prejudice against iron the firm had to wait until after
his death to discard teak. The former became a popular passenger ship
to Melbourne; and the last of these famous Blackwall frigates was the
_Melbourne_, built for the Greens at the Blackwall yard in 1875 as the
finest iron passenger sailing ship in the world. Of 1857 tons and 269·8
feet long, her passenger accommodation was excellent—a great difference
from the old East Indiamen.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “NORFOLK.”
3,196 tons, 2,500 horse-power. J. Pyne O’Callaghan, Commander. One of
Money Wigram & Sons’ Australian ships. About 1879.]
Until 1887 _Melbourne_ sailed regularly to the Australian port of the
same name, and was then bought by Messrs. Devitt & Moore, who changed
her name to _Macquarie_. In 1897 she was used as one of this firm’s
cadet ships, six years later she was sold to the Norwegians and changed
her name to _Fortuna_, and these owners eventually sold her, so that
now she is used as a hulk in Australia. So ended one interesting period
in one of the most important developments of the Mercantile Marine. The
combination of personal interest on the part of builder and owner; the
great pride in the ship not merely as a money-maker, but as a thing of
beauty and queen of the sea; the ability of officers and men serving
under a captain who was anxious to maintain the dignity of his line—all
these brought about a high standard of seafaring which was thoroughly
let down when owners without consciences sent crews to sea in ill-found
steam coffin-ships. The fine, historic reputation of the Merchant
Service received a shock, the best men were attracted by other walks in
life, and so for a while the standard deteriorated. There are many who
believe, rightly, that the Mercantile Marine of any country could and
should be run with fixity of employment and the same lofty standard as
the fighting navies. If that were done, the grade of officers and men
would be as high as it was in the days of the East Indiamen. Let it be
realised what a nation’s merchant ships mean to the country, and then
the public will concede it proper respect and give to that service its
best sons.
CHAPTER XIII
CRACKING-ON
We have seen in the development of our subject that it was only after
many centuries that the accommodation of the passenger aboard ship was
ever considered. We have noticed how the ship was built primarily not
for speed, but for carrying the maximum of cargo with the greatest
safety. But now there comes into our story the desire for speed as the
dominating factor, far more important than any other consideration, and
it is in the clipper ships that we get the first merchant vessels that
were constructed to cross the seas with the utmost despatch.
It is to North America that this is due. Whilst our bluff, dignified,
heavy East Indiamen were slowly making their last voyages before the
China monopoly was to come to an end, a remarkable ship, built by her
owner regardless of cost, was to appear in Baltimore. This was the
_Ann McKim_, of 493 registered tons. This flush-decked vessel came out
in 1832. She was very fast, but had small carrying capacity, and was
the first clipper ship ever built, and having regard to the daring
improvement which America had made in frigates and privateers, it is
not surprising that this fast type of merchant ship should come from
the same country. The contrast, indeed, between the old East Indiamen
and the young clippers is exactly what exists between the Old World and
the New. Convention was put aside, shipbuilders thought out problems
for themselves and had the courage to put their convictions into hulls.
But the first real out-and-out clipper ship was the _Rainbow_, which
was launched at the beginning of 1845 in New York. She was a 750-ton
vessel with hollow lines at the bows, and her greatest breadth much
further aft than had been thought practicable. When constructed, she
turned out to be a handsome vessel, exceptionally quick, and she was
the fastest vessel in the world. But after trading some time out to
China, she was lost in 1848, probably off Cape Horn. Now the cause of
attraction towards China at first was the trade in opium. It is not to
the credit of British, American or Parsee firms that this pernicious
drug was imported into China, where it had been declared illegal by the
Government as far back as 1796; but this illicit trade certainly did
much to develop fast-sailing ships.
But besides the opium, there was the China tea trade after the East
India Company’s monopoly had run out, and happily this did even more
than the opium to improve the evolution of the quickest fleet of ships
under sail that the world has ever seen. In 1846 the 890-ton _Sea
Witch_ was launched in New York, and she made a wonderful series of
voyages to China and back, her best day’s run being 358 miles, which
was far superior to that of any contemporary steamer. Then came such
celebrated American clippers as the _Samuel Russell_, 940 tons, the
_Memnon_, 1068 tons, and others. The American trade with China was so
important that in one year forty-one ships with tea, silk and spices
reached New York from China. The American clippers were certainly the
fastest ships of the period, and the _Sea Witch_ was still to hold the
record for a long time.
But now come two important events which were to have noteworthy results
on the Mercantile Marines of the world. The first of these was the
repeal of the British Navigation Laws in 1849, and the second was the
rush in that same year to California, caused by the discovery there
of gold in 1848. We will deal briefly with these factors and pass on.
Considerable opposition was made to this repeal, and indeed the first
result was that the tonnage of British shipping entering British ports
largely decreased and that of American shipping increased. After a
few years this competition proved a stimulus to both countries, but
especially it caused British owners to wake up in the Atlantic, as the
introduction of competition into the Eastern route had already done so
much good.
During the ’forties and ’fifties the American Mercantile Marine was in
many respects superior to the British, for the reason that the baneful
monopoly had caused a kind of self-satisfaction, and therefore no
progress to speak of. The long series of Navigation Laws beginning in
1651, and the steady, comfortable, close trade to the East, had lulled
British shipping into a kind of stupor. It was only when competition
was thrown open to the world that British shipping really got going.
The first American ship to carry tea from China to England was the
_Oriental_, which left China in August 1850 and reached the London
River ninety-seven days out from Hong-Kong with 1600 tons. This was the
fastest passage which had yet been made to England. As a beautiful,
powerful, speedy, well-found ship the like of her had never been met
with in the Thames. Those who had never seen anything but the East
Indiamen were amazed at the innovation by the United States Mercantile
Marine. But the shock did a world of good. The arrival of tea, in an
American ship, in record time, from a country where there had been a
British monopoly for so long, caused shipowners and builders furiously
to think.
The result was that two ships were ordered to be built at Aberdeen,
for during the last few years Messrs. Hall of that port had been
building some fast schooners. The _Stornoway_ and _Chrysolite_ were
thus launched, and have been called the first British tea-clippers,
though they were less beamy and powerful than the American clippers.
The first ship sailed out to Hong-Kong in 102 days, the _Chrysolite_
also went out during 1851 in the same time, and on her way home her
best day’s run was 320 miles, and she even reached fourteen knots. She
got to Liverpool in 103 days, after a very fine maiden voyage. Then
came increased competition as the result of _Chrysolite’s_ achievement,
for the American Navigation Club challenged the British shipbuilders to
a race with cargo on board from England to China and back for £10,000 a
side. This stake was even doubled, but the challenge was unfortunately
never accepted by British shipowners until Richard Green in 1852 built
the tea-clipper _Challenger_, which in that year went out to China,
and after loading tea at Shanghai, fell in with the American clipper
_Challenge_, three times the size of the British ship. From Anjer they
raced home with their tea, and _Challenger_ beat the _Challenge_ into
the dock in London by a couple of days. It is only fair to add that
British naval architects had an opportunity of learning from American
progress in a very direct manner. For _Oriental_ had been previously
placed into the Blackwall dock and her lines taken off; and now
_Challenge_ went in for the same purpose. Thus, the American clipper
ships, with their original design, did have a very powerful effect on
the future of British shipping.
The competition in the China tea trade continued, the British clippers
of this time made the rivalry very keen, and it is always a matter
of regret that there never was another real race between the two
countries. But now we must see how the California gold affected the
clipper. Briefly these are the facts. In 1848 San Francisco was a
mere hamlet, but this sudden discovery of a means to wealth caused a
tremendous flow of emigration to the West. Every one wanted to go, and
every one wanted to get there in the quickest possible time. Leaving
out the difficulties in those days of transcontinental travel, the only
way possible was by means of ships. The American clipper was thus the
solution, and they were therefore built in great numbers and in a small
space of time. In fact within four years 160 were launched, and they
sailed from New York to San Francisco in the remarkable time of 100
to 120 days. Here, then, was yet another incentive to the increase of
the Mercantile Marine, to the shipbuilders and to those attracted by
the sea. It is comparable only to the impetus which we have seen was
received by the Elizabethan seamen. There has seldom been in history
such an extensive and speedy migration of people, all anxious to get
rich quickly. Once again the ship was invaluable in the service of man.
In the year 1849 over 90,000 passengers landed in that San Franciscan
hamlet from ships. On the other hand, it became most difficult to
get crews to bring the ships back; for the seamen, too, had gone
gold-seeking as soon as the ship had anchored. The California clipper
period, as Captain Clark says in his _The Clipper Ship Era_, covers
the period 1850 to 1860, and it is during the first four of these
years that nearly all the 160 ships were built, most of them being
constructed in the neighbourhood of New York and Boston. It is claimed
for them that they were the fastest sailing ships which the world
ever saw, and the skippers cracked-on because these vessels were
able to earn enormous rates if only the passengers could be landed
at their port in the quickest time. Every one was making money—the
shipowner, captain, crew and then the gold-seekers. Ashore the riggers,
shipwrights, painters, sail-makers, metal workers, spar-makers,
pump-makers, blacksmiths, carpenters, caulkers were in such demand
that there was prosperity for all, and plenty of it. And it is to this
period that a good many of the fast-dying sea-chanties can be traced.
What of the crews that manned the American clippers? “The history of
men before the mast on board American ships,” says Captain Clark,
“is not a history of American sailors, for strictly speaking there
have never been any American merchant sailors as a class; that is,
no American merchant ship of considerable tonnage was ever manned
by native-born Americans in the sense that French, British, Dutch,
Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish or Danish ships are manned by men born in
the country under whose flags they sail.” This statement was written in
1910, and of course requires some modification to-day. But the advent
of the Californian clippers necessitated getting men from anywhere—some
sailors, many others not, and a whole lot of “bad hats” among them.
Of the Californian clippers built in 1851 one was the celebrated
_Challenge_, already referred to, a vessel of 2006 tons, one of the
largest clippers ever built, though absolutely the biggest was the
_Great Republic_, built in 1853. This was constructed by Donald McKay,
the famous Nova Scotian builder. She was of 4555 tons register, and
was the first ship to have an engine merely for hoisting the yards
and working the pumps. Rigged with four masts, she had the misfortune
to get on fire when nearly ready for sea, but was rebuilt, being the
largest merchant ship of her time, though registering now only 3357
tons.
The famous American clipper _Dreadnought_ came out in 1853, and voyaged
between New York and Liverpool, and on one occasion made this passage
in fifteen days twelve hours, and on another occasion in thirteen days
eight hours, though she was wrecked eventually off Cape Horn. But the
Australian gold discovery in 1851 had the same effect on shipping that
the China tea trade and the California gold rush had created. The
fastest vessels were required, competition became keen, and there was
no time to waste. Those owners, therefore, who had ships that could
carry passengers were in a splendid position from the first, for about
300,000 or 400,000 people each year for the next three or four years
had to be transported. From America no less than from England these
ships sailed away, and there was the same difficulty in Melbourne with
the crews as there had been in San Francisco.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the White Star Line._
SAILING NOTICE OF THE WHITE STAR CLIPPER “RED JACKET.”
(See p. 157.)]
For British shipowners the difficulty was that there was but little
accommodation in most ships, so they thought of the American clippers,
which had been doing such fine work. James Baines & Co. of Liverpool
therefore had the clipper _Marco Polo_ built at St. John’s, New
Brunswick. She was a very handsome ship of 1622 tons, with considerable
rise of floor, very fine aft, and she carried a very large spread of
canvas. This was the pioneer of the clipper ships for the Australian
trade and the first of the Australian Black Ball Line, her passenger
accommodation being a great improvement on the ships usually trading to
Australia. She left Liverpool in July 1851, and made a record passage
in sixty-eight days to Melbourne, and during the ensuing years of the
gold rush was a very popular and successful ship. The British lines
running out to Australia at this time were the White Star (twenty years
before they entered the Atlantic steam competition) and James Baines &
Co.’s Australia Black Ball Line, just mentioned.
These two firms both had clippers which were built in New England, and
one of these, the _Red Jacket_, was for the White Star Line. Named
after a noted Indian chief, with a full-length figure-head of him at
her bow, this fine ship was one of the most famous of the clippers,
and made a fine passage from New York to Liverpool in thirteen days,
one hour, when she first came out in February 1854, and on one of the
days made 413 miles. During that same year she sailed from Liverpool to
Melbourne in sixty-nine days. In his recently published _Reminiscences
of a Liverpool Shipowner_, Sir William B. Forwood has left an
interesting account of a voyage he made in this magnificent sailing
ship of 2006 tons, three years after she came out. “On the morning of
the 20th November, 1857,” he says, “I embarked by a tender from the
Liverpool pierhead. It was nearly the top of high water. The crew were
mustered on the forecastle, under the 1st Mate, Mr. Taylor. An order
comes from the quarter-deck. ‘Heave up the anchor and get away.’ ‘Aye,
aye, sir.’ ‘Now then, my boys, man the windlass,’ shouts the Mate, and
to a merry chantie:
“‘In 1847 Paddy Murphy went to Heaven
To work on the railway, the railway, the railway,
Oh, poor Paddy works upon the railway.’
“‘The anchor is away, sir,’ shouts the Chief Officer. ‘Heave it a-peak
and cathead it,’ comes from the quarter-deck, and the tug _Retriever_
forges ahead and tightens the tow-rope as we gather way. Bang, bang
went the guns, and twice more, for we were carrying the mails, and
goodbye to old Liverpool, and the crowds which lined the pierhead
cheered, for the _Red Jacket_ was already a famous ship, and it was
hoped she would make a record passage.
“Next morning we were off Holyhead, with a fresh westerly breeze and
southerly swell. We were making but poor headway, and shortly the
hawser parted. ‘All hands on deck,’ was shouted by Captain O’Halloran,
and a crew of eighty men promptly appeared on deck, for we carried
a double crew. ‘Loose sails fore and aft; hands in the tops and
cross-trees to see that all is clear and to overhaul gear; let royals
and sky sails alone.’
“The boatswain’s whistle sounded fore and aft as the men quickly took
their positions and laid hold of the halyards and braces.
[Illustration:
[_Photo, Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd._
CRACKING-ON!]
“‘Mr. Taylor, loose the headsails.’ ‘Aye, aye, sir.’ The topsail,
courses and topgallant sails were all loose and gaskets made up. ‘Now
then, my men, lead your topsail halyards fore and aft, and up with
them.’ Away the crew walk along with the halyards, and then with a long
pull and a pull all together the topsail yards are mastheaded to the
chantie:
“‘Then up the yard must go,
Whiskey for my Johnny,
Oh, whiskey for the life of man,
Whiskey, Johnny.’”
With the man at the wheel, keeping his eyes on the weather-luff of the
foreroyal, and allowing the sail to be just on the tremble, so as not
to lose an inch to windward, the _Red Jacket_ went tearing through the
seas, throwing them on either side in a sparkling cascade. By evening
the wind had increased, and the captain ordered life-lines to be run
fore and aft, and the decks to be sanded and the scuppers to be free.
The clipper plunges along, the man at the wheel eases her a few spokes
when a squall strikes her, and then bang goes the second jib, blown out
of the bolt ropes with the report of a gun. With seas coming in over
the forecastle, the hands set another jib, and by this time the clipper
is indeed travelling, for by the log she is doing eighteen knots.
During bad weather the fifty saloon passengers and 600 steerage were
kept below and the atmosphere was stifling. There was none of the
comfort or luxury of a modern steamship, and the clipper was heeling
over in a way that would alarm many travellers to-day. But at last,
after sixty-four days, the _Red Jacket_ had made Port Philip Heads, and
so a record voyage to Australia. Those were the days when travelling
by sea was romantic and not as monotonous as a railway journey. With
the captain cracking-on to make a fast trip, with sails carrying away,
spars and gear as well, there was always some sport, some adventure.
Between 1850 and the following ten years Prince’s Dock, Liverpool, was
crowded with fine clippers raising their lofty masts and crossing their
great spars. And those were the days of wonderful feats of seamanship.
Sir William Forwood says that he remembers seeing the 600-ton
Brocklebank sailing ship _Martaban_ come sailing into George’s Dock
Basin under all canvas. Her halyards were then let go and sails clewed
up so smartly that the ship, as she passed the pierhead, was able to
throw a line on shore and make fast. Could you beat this for seamanlike
skill and discipline?
[Illustration:
[_Photo, Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd._
SPARS AND STAYS.
Looking for’ard along the decks of a sailing ship.]
But it is with the celebrated China tea-clippers from about 1860
onwards that this skill reached such heights of proficiency. British
shipowners no longer found it necessary to have their clippers built
in America, and the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, together with the
enterprise learnt in a hard school, as the result of competition,
enabled British shipping to go ahead. The California boom, which had
produced America’s finest clippers, was dead. The great quantities
of American timber would soon be not wanted for shipbuilding, now
that iron was coming in and steam was replacing sails. But that which
gave the final character to the American Mercantile Marine was the
outbreak of civil war in 1861 between the North and South. From that
it never recovered until the new efforts, begun in 1917, to rebuild a
service that had been such a keen competitor during the clipper-ship
period. In the meantime, during the ’sixties and onwards, the British
Mercantile Marine, by the enterprise of the shipowners, the assistance
of legislation, the protection of the British Navy, the scientific
progress of shipbuilders and engineers, and by the skill and endurance
of its officers and crews, regained its supremacy after a stiff fight,
and opened up new trade routes in all parts of the world. And this
not merely in regard to the big lines, but especially in respect of
the tramp steamers going out with coal and bringing back all sorts of
essential produce.
The Clyde was gradually beginning to take the place of the Blackwall
yard, and this became still more so as the need for coal and iron
increased, owing to the fact that the Thames is not convenient to
coalfields. It was in 1855 that Steele of Greenock built his first
tea-clipper, the _Kate Carnie_, about 600 tons, and thereafter he
built, among other beautiful and eye-pleasing ships, the historic
_Taeping_, _Serica_, _Ariel_ and _Sir Lancelot_, all under 900 tons,
yet exceedingly fast. From 1855 to 1881 is the comprehensive period
of these China tea-clippers, and their evolution should be compared
with that of the Blackwall frigates already dealt with. The Steele
clippers had a full midship section and fine ends, but some of the
other clippers were fined away like the hulls of schooner yachts.
Unlike the obstinate Blackwallers, many tea-clippers had a certain
amount of sheer. From 1863 both the Clyde and Aberdeen firms launched
composite-built clippers, and these were so beautifully tight as to
require practically no pumping, and so the cargoes of tea arrived in
perfect condition.
The British tea-clippers of the period under consideration were
smaller than the American clippers, had less sheer, less freeboard,
and were more slim and graceful, with decks unencumbered except with
small houses; with less heavy spars, less beam, and were designed
to carry small cargoes of tea with the utmost despatch. They were a
small fleet in numbers, but their excellence was rather in a sustained
average speed throughout their voyages than in hourly or daily runs.
The longest day’s run by a tea-clipper was 363 miles, and this record
was made by _Cutty Sark_, and the only other clipper that could rival
her was the _Thermopylae_. These tea-clippers were economical to run,
handled by magnificent British seamen, and commanded by captains of
great experience, courage and enterprise. The composite construction
of wooden planking and iron frames gave these little ships unusual
strength, they were ballasted with shingle, and in light weather could
utterly outsail a Black Baller, a Californian clipper or a Blackwall
frigate. But because of their comparative smallness it is not to be
imagined that in heavy weather they could compete with the American
clippers of much greater tonnage and freeboard. _Cutty Sark’s_ rival,
_Thermopylae_, being of her own nationality, on one occasion did 358
miles, and _Ariel_ 340 miles, in the twenty-four hours.
But these tea-clippers needed proper handling, like sensitive horses,
and required to be humoured. Those were the days when the love of
ships by owners, captains and crews was something real, when clippers
were treated like human beings and given everything they wanted; and
their loss often meant the breaking of the owner’s heart. The personal
relationship between the owner, his ship and captain was something
very different from to-day. Before the advent of limited liability
companies and telegraph cables, instructions were given personally
by the owner, who would himself come down to see his ship start. In
many cases the captains were financially interested in the ships, and
it must be remembered that the best clipper-ship captains were hard
to find. Remembering that an owner required neither a mere dare-devil
nor one who merely played for safety, but a captain who would crack-on
without losing ship or gear, and whilst getting the last ounce out of
the ship would know instantly when to ease up, it is obvious that an
ideal commander would be a mixture of courage, iron nerve, initiative,
driving power, sound judgment based on experience, consummate
seamanlike ability and great physical endurance.
It was when such skippers got command of these lovely little ships that
the tea was raced home in such splendid time. They had to watch their
ships from hour to hour during the three months’ race from China to
England, rarely going below, getting very little sleep, and the result
was that many eventually broke down. But we must think of them as the
keenest lot of captains who ever sailed the seas, and up to every dodge
to get the ship home quicker than the other fellow. They looked for
risks and accepted them freely, but they were not foolhardy, and they
knew just how much their ships could stand. Backed up not by mutinous
crews, as was often the case in the American clippers, but by thorough
seamen, all British, a captain knew that he could rely on them to
aid him in getting the most out of his ship; for they were not less
keen than himself, and were betting against the other ships. It meant
hard work, but no sailorman will ever grouse at this if he is in tune
with the reason. They took a pride in their vessels and were jealous
of a ship’s honour. Could the same be said nowadays of the crews of
steamships? Sentiment in seafaring has a tremendous practical value if
only it is appreciated and properly trained.
In his volume _The China Clippers_, Mr. Basil Lubbock says that “in
the heyday of the racing, Foochow was the loading port par excellence,
and the Pagoda anchorage, just before the tea came down the river,
showed perhaps the most beautiful fleet of ships the world has ever
seen. The crack ships, which were always the first to load, began to
assemble about the end of April; and until the tea came down were all
engaged in painting, varnishing and smartening themselves up, and in
other ways, such as sheathing over their channels, preparing for the
fray. Then what a sight they made when all was spick and span, with
their glistening black hulls, snow-white decks, golden gingerbread
work and carving at bow and stern, newly-varnished teak deck-fittings,
glittering brass and burnished copper. Every ship, of course, had her
distinctive mast and bulwark colours.”
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
PORT OF LIVERPOOL.
In 1798.]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
SCREW S.S. “LADY JOCELYN.”
1,800 tons, 300 horse-power. Owned by General Screw Steam Shipping Co.]
The tea-clipper _Fiery Cross_, launched in 1860 at Liverpool and
wood-built, was to become famous for her fast passages home. It was
customary in those days for the first vessel who landed the new teas
in England to receive a premium. This vessel won the premium on four
occasions. Then in 1863 Steele built the _Serica_ and _Taeping_, two
of the most famous clipper ships. The former was wood-built and of 708
tons. The latter was composite-built and of 767 tons, and it was in
1865 that two more Steele composite tea-clippers were launched, also
to become famous. These were the 853-ton _Ariel_ and the 886-ton _Sir
Lancelot_. Very beautiful craft they were, and no ship-lover can regard
the existing pictures of these handsome craft without a thrill of
emotion. Symmetry, grace, proportion, curves, easy lines as to hull;
a good sail-plan, tall masts and fine spars; carrying in light winds
all sorts of kites and fancy sails, the supreme test came in the
ever-memorable race of 1866, which is one of the greatest events in the
whole history of merchant ships under sail. On May 28, 1866, there was
a whole fleet of these clippers loading at Foochow. At 5 p.m. _Ariel_
began her voyage, by dropping down and anchoring for the night; and
then followed the _Fiery Cross_, _Taeping_, _Serica_ and _Taitsing_, at
intervals. On August 12 _Ariel_ passed the Cape Verde Islands, next day
came _Taeping_, _Fiery Cross_ and _Serica_, the _Taitsing_ not passing
until the 19th, but she had made up these three days by September 1.
On September 5 _Ariel_ picked up the Bishop Light, sighted _Taeping_,
and the two raced up Channel, doing their fourteen knots. _Ariel_ got
her pilot at six the next morning off Dungeness, followed immediately
by _Taeping_. In the Downs _Taeping_ got the more powerful tug, and
thus reached Gravesend nearly an hour sooner, and finally docked twenty
minutes before _Ariel_. It was a near thing after racing for three
months from one end of the world to the other. _Serica_ docked on the
same tide, _Fiery Cross_ was only about a day later, and _Taitsing_
arrived in the river on September 9. And there were plenty more of
these races, for the skippers cracked-on and made these clippers do
marvellous things through the water.
But in 1868 there was built at Aberdeen the famous clipper
_Thermopylae_, 947 tons, a bigger and more powerful ship than the
Steele clippers, and a veritable witch at sailing, whether on the wind
or to windward, and a wonderful sea boat, too. In November 1868 she
started on her maiden voyage from Gravesend, and reached Melbourne in
sixty-three days. Mr. Downie, already quoted, whilst a midshipman in a
Blackwaller, happened to be in Melbourne when _Thermopylae_ came in,
and went aboard to look over this new wonder ship. “She had immensely
square yards,” he says, “and most beautiful lines, fore and aft. Her
apprentices told me her skipper had driven her all the way, carrying on
tremendously, but her spars and rigging were all new, and of the best
material, and stood the severe strain in splendid fashion.”
_Thermopylae_ broke records, and in 1869 got home from Foochow in
ninety-one days, though _Sir Lancelot_ less than a fortnight later
arrived after a voyage of only eighty-nine days. But then came the
splendid _Cutty Sark_. She is the only one of this long line of
tea-clippers still afloat and at work. In the autumn of 1921 she came
into the London river, and I was able to go all over her. But she had
changed her name to _Ferreira_ and was Portuguese-owned and rigged as a
barquentine. For all that, and the disappointing way in which she was
being kept up, she was in excellent condition, with a yacht-like hull,
every line of which suggested grace and speed. Composite-built, this
921-ton vessel was a little bigger than _Thermopylae_, and was launched
in 1869. Under Captain Moodie this vessel cracked-on, and she could do
her seventeen and a half knots, and anyone who has examined her bow and
stern will readily believe this.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
AUXILIARY SCREW S.S. “INDOMITABLE.”
1,170 tons. Owned by R. James Brown, Sunderland.]
And here, in the height of their glory, we must now leave these
clippers; for the opening of the Suez Canal told owners pretty
plainly that the future for them was to leave sail and go in for steam.
In 1881 _Thermopylae_ made her last passage as a tea-carrier, and all
the other clippers had either gone or were out of the running, and used
in other trades. Crews began more frequently to go into steamships,
famous captains retired, and the younger men, like the crews, preferred
the more comfortable life in a mechanically-propelled vessel. But for
years the American and British clipper ships were the glory of the
Mercantile Marine, as at one time the old East Indiamen had been before
the days of healthy competition. The influence of the scientific French
architects on the American builders of frigates and privateers is
traceable through the clipper ships which followed. Thus mutually one
nation is linked with another in the development of that great service
which has meant so much for the good of the world.
CHAPTER XIV
THE TRIUMPH OF STEAM
The speed of life, the rate of progress, and the development of new
ideas have since the beginning of the nineteenth century been so rapid
that all the previous history of the Mercantile Marine, as in other
spheres of activity, seems ridiculously slow and unduly protracted
until we realise that a ship could not become efficient until she had
the right type of hull and the correct distribution of sails, nor be
able to steam until suitable engines had evolved by invention and long
practice.
It is a cliché to speak of the “wonderful” nineteenth century, and
yet in regard to its effects on the sea services it is but expressing
a literal truth. The amazing fact is, that just as the sailing ship
was becoming perfect the steamship was beginning to take its place;
and just as the clippers had definitely created the golden age of
sail, steamers had become reliable, indispensable and destined to make
sailing vessels out of date. If steam and iron, and then steel, had not
been introduced into marine progress for another hundred years, and
the clippers had been allowed to have the seas to themselves, it would
have seemed but fair and natural, having regard to the centuries and
centuries which had been necessary to bring about, at last, so perfect
a creation of man’s science, art and bitter experience.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
LORD YARBOROUGH’S YACHT “FALCON.”
351 tons. Off Cowes. About 1829. Afterwards used as a merchant ship.]
But it was not to be. The story of the steamship, like that of the
sailing ship, is one of evolution; but compressed into a few years
instead of many centuries. As early as 1736 a steam vessel had been
patented by Jonathan Hulls, to be used as a steam tug. It is even said
that such a craft was built and experimented with in the following
year; but at any rate the experiment was not continued. The essential
idea was the use of a single paddle at the stern. Now follows the
trend of invention. In 1783 a two-paddle-wheel steam craft, turned
by a single horizontal steam cylinder, constructed by the Marquis de
Jouffroy, actually went ahead for some time against the current of the
Saône. For some time Patrick Miller had been experimenting with the old
idea of propelling craft by hand-worked paddle-wheels. In 1787 William
Symington had obtained a patent for a new steam-engine, and he was now
asked to design an engine that would turn these paddle-wheels. Thus in
the autumn of 1788 the engine was put into a double-hulled vessel, no
bigger than the smallest yacht, measuring 25 feet long, with 7 feet
beam, the engine being geared with chains and the two paddle-wheels
being placed between the two hulls, one wheel astern of the other. This
curious vessel was actually tried on Dalswinton Loch and was able to do
her five miles an hour.
Then in 1801 was built the stern-wheeler _Charlotte Dundas_ at
Grangemouth, having engines supplied by Symington. She also had a
double stern with two rudders controlled by a steering-wheel. She
proved her efficiency to the extent of towing a couple of 70-ton,
loaded vessels for nearly twenty miles along the Forth and Clyde canal;
but as the owners of this waterway feared for the damage done to the
banks of the canal, the ship was condemned. We have to look upon these
as hardly anything more than interesting experiments, but six years
later we see the first real steamship, not in England nor Scotland,
but in North America, yet produced by a combination of British and
American brains. This was the _Clermont_, measuring 133 feet long and
18 feet beam, and was produced by Robert Fulton, an American engineer,
born in Pennsylvania of Irish parentage. In 1797 he came to Paris,
where he devoted his attention to steam navigation, and in 1803 built
a small steamboat which went up the Seine. Three years later he went
back to America, having seen the trial trip of the _Charlotte Dundas_.
He arranged with the British firm Boulton & Watt to make for him the
principal portions of a suitable engine, and these were sent across the
Atlantic to him and fitted into the wooden ship _Clermont_. The result
was that in 1807 this craft travelled by steam power from New York to
Albany up the Hudson, a distance of 150 miles, in thirty-two hours.
This was a veritable triumph, and definitely settled the question as
to whether steam vessels would ever become of practical utility. It
is, indeed, one of the landmarks of history, and when we look on the
ocean to-day and see such mighty steamships as _Olympic_, _Aquitania_,
_Majestic_ and _Berengaria_, to say nothing of the many thousands of
smaller steamers all over the world, it is nothing short of remarkable
that in little more than a hundred years such a stupendous change
should have come about. The advancement of the ship seems suddenly to
have been telescoped.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
CLIPPER SCREW S.S. “HELLENIS.”
755 tons, length 206 ft. Owned by the Anglo-Ionian Steam Navigation
Co., Ltd. Built at Stockton. In 1861.]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “ORINOCO.”
2,250 tons, 800 horse-power. Lieut. G. M. Chapman, R.N., Commander.
Owned by Royal West India Mail Company.]
But the successive stages were not easy, and there was much to be
learnt. In 1811 on the Clyde was launched the _Comet_, a clumsy
little thing of 40 feet length on the keel, and able to steam five
miles an hour by means of one paddle on each side, as in the case of
the _Clermont_. During the next few years paddle-steamers began to
be built and introduced on the Clyde, Thames and Mersey. By 1817 a
steamer called the _Caledonia_ had been taken from the Clyde to the
Thames, whence, after receiving new engines, she steamed to Rotterdam.
A year later came the 90-ton _Rob Roy_, constructed by William Denny
and engined by Napier with thirty nominal horse-power. After running
for some time between Greenock and Belfast, she was transferred to
the Dover-Calais route, but in the meantime steamer development was
proceeding in other parts of Europe. For in 1815 a small craft called
the _Elizabeth_ was running on the Neva, another steamer was carrying
passengers between Cronstadt and St. Petersburg, whilst in Germany the
first vessel of this kind to be built was the _Prinzessin Charlotte_, a
double-hulled thing with a single paddle-wheel between the hulls. She
was running on the Elbe and Spree as early as 1816.
Thus far small steamers had shown their utility for inland waters
and for short sea passages; but now comes another important event.
In the year 1818 there was built in New York the 350-ton full-rigged
ship _Savannah_, but she was also fitted with a low-pressure engine
of ninety horse-power, and a couple of paddle-wheels, one on each
side. These were so arranged that they could be hoisted on board. In
the following year she crossed the Atlantic to Liverpool in thirty
days, but this was largely a sailing passage, for she did not use her
engines except for eighty hours, and by the time she had reached the
Irish coast she had consumed all her fuel. On her return to America
her engines were removed and she became a sailing ship simply. Still,
for the first time in history a ship had been driven by steam in the
Atlantic, and it showed what could be expected presently.
And then came a surprise. In that yard which had been building nothing
else but sailing ships since the time of Elizabeth, in that yard where
the flower of the British merchant fleet had always been constructed,
there was now actually being made a steamer! It seemed incredible,
but it was true, and it caused a great sensation at the time. In 1820
had been formed the first steamship company, under the title of the
General Steam Navigation Company, and they gave the order for their
first steamer to the Blackwall yard of Wigram & Green. This ship was
the 401-ton paddler _City of Edinburgh_, for the Edinburgh trade, and
she was launched in 1821, the same year as the yard also launched the
1333-ton East Indiaman _Duchess of Atholl_, one of the finest sailing
ships of the time. It was significant of the big change that was coming
over the Mercantile Marine, though for many a year most of the officers
and men heartily despised any one who deserted sail for steam.
In the following year this same yard launched the 180-ton paddler _King
of the Netherlands_ for the same owners, and in 1823 they built three
more steamers of from 244 to 510 tons. The _City of Edinburgh_ had been
launched in March, and had caused so much interest that the future
William IV and Queen Adelaide went to look over her and were surprised
at the magnificence of her passenger accommodation. The engines were of
only 100 horse-power, yet the Press at the time referred to them as
“extremely powerful.” Then in the following June was launched at Port
Glasgow the 420-ton three-masted schooner _James Watt_, which had a
long, narrow funnel, about as tall as her mainmast, and a paddle-wheel
on either side of the ship driven by engines of the same horse-power as
those for the _City of Edinburgh_.
The steamship had thus got a good start, though as regards ocean work
the engines were auxiliary rather than the main propelling power. In
1825 the 176-ton auxiliary _Falcon_ reached Calcutta via the Cape, and
the 470-ton _Enterprise_ made the same voyage in 113 days, but for 103
days she used steam. This was the biggest test which marine machinery
had so far endured. It proved a good deal, and therefore it is not
surprising that two years later there were eighty steamers classed
in Lloyd’s Register, and five years later there were 100. But the
Atlantic had not yet been conquered by steam, and when we realise that
_Aquitania_ was not in commission until 1914, we can well appreciate
the rate of progress that was afterwards made. In 1831 a vessel named
the _Royal William_, 176 feet long, was built in Quebec, and fitted
with engines made by Boulton & Watt that had been sent across the
Atlantic. Two years later this ship crossed the ocean to Cowes, having
done the 2500 miles in seventeen days, yet there is some doubt as to
whether she used her engines throughout the whole voyage.
But the year 1838 was to be remarkable in the story of the Atlantic,
for on April 4 there started from Cork the 703-ton paddler _Sirius_,
which reached New York on April 22. She had steamed all the way, but
it had been a near thing, for her fuel gave out and she had even to
burn some of her spars. At one stage of the voyage her captain had
to quell a mutiny, for the crew began to assume that the ship would
never get across. Twelve hours after her arrival came into New York the
four-masted paddler _Great Western_, which had left Bristol on April 7.
She was a much larger ship, of 1321 gross tons, and had been specially
designed by that engineering genius Brunel to withstand Atlantic
weather. On the return voyage she took fifteen days, and _Sirius_
seventeen. _Great Western_ was a most successful ship, both technically
and commercially. At the end of the first year she earned a dividend of
9 per cent., thirty-five guineas being the fare, and she carried 152
passengers. She was not broken up until 1847.
So far no steamer had crossed from Liverpool to New York, though the
sailing ships were still doing the voyage in about three weeks, but in
1838 a second _Royal William_ accomplished this. She was hardly the
kind of paddler to choose for Atlantic work, and had really been built
for the Liverpool-Kingstown route. Built and engined at Liverpool,
being 3 feet shorter but 2 feet wider than _Sirius_, she was thus
the first of those steamers to maintain the communication between
Liverpool and New York, which has meant so much to the mutual commerce
and development of ideas in the two countries. On April 2, 1839, the
three-masted paddler _British Queen_ left Portsmouth and reached New
York on April 16, or three days quicker than the first _Royal William_
had done the journey in the opposite direction under sail and steam.
Encouraged by the success of _Sirius_, which had been chartered
because the _British Queen_ was not yet ready, the British Queen Steam
Navigation Company had also built the sister ship _President_, 1863
tons and 700 horse-power; but after sailing from New York on March 11,
1841, with a few passengers, _President_ was never heard of again, and
thus the company came to an end.
We have now reached a stage when a change was coming over the
Mercantile Marine slowly but without a doubt. A new competition was
beginning, yet so far sail was ahead and improving all the time.
But from the number of new shipyards which were springing up, and
the interest which they and owners were taking in the steamship, it
was obvious even soon after Queen Victoria’s accession that in the
steamship lay the future of the trading and passenger ship. It is to be
noted that during the time of the Honourable East India Company their
ships were primarily and essentially freighters. They earned their
profits by carrying valuable exports and imports. The few passengers
who travelled were officials going out to India in the service of
the company, or returning home. To-day the finest merchant ships in
the world are not freighters, but passenger ships. It is the tramp
which has succeeded to the carrying trade of those pioneer ships; and
after the Indian monopoly had disappeared, and there came a need for
people to go out East, it was quite an innovation to provide more
accommodation for passengers. Then the same thing happened in regard
to China, but especially with the emigration to Australia. Gradually
this element increased, people began to travel all over the world, for
business, for administrative reasons, for pleasure; and as the number
of passengers increased so the amount of cargo space was encroached
upon. Especially was this the case in the transatlantic ships, so that
to-day the principal liners on that route carry practically no cargo
beyond mails and the passengers’ luggage. Thus, within a hundred years,
the needs of the public have entirely altered the characters of the
shipping.
It was natural enough that the East should for so long have instigated
all the improvements in shipping, for the reason that travellers
went to the Orient long before America was discovered, and the East
India Company had a continuous need for the best ships. But since the
introduction of steam and the rapid progress of the United States,
it is the West, and not the East which has always seen the greatest
enterprise in shipping. Bigger and better vessels, compound engines,
twin screws, triple screws, quadruple screws, turbines, oil fuel,
increased speed, luxurious accommodation—all these most important and
progressive factors in the Mercantile Marine have come as a result of
the Atlantic, and not the Oriental trade.
In reality it is all traceable to the year 1840, though the
establishment of Lloyd’s Register in 1834,[5] the founding of the
Marine Department of the Board of Trade in 1846 and the repeal of the
Navigation Laws in 1849 have also to be reckoned as having powerfully
contributed to the improvement of British shipping. Some time since
I had in my hands the log of the sailing ship _Elizabeth_, which
sailed from the Thames in the spring of 1833, arrived in China the
following January, left there in March, called at St. Helena in June,
then crossed the Atlantic and reached Halifax in August. She was, I
believe, the last of the ships owned by the Honourable East India
Company to leave China before the monopoly ended. Now, as showing
the interlocking of human affairs, it is interesting to observe that
at Halifax she went alongside Mr. Cunard’s wharf, for he was the East
India Company’s agent in that port. Curiously, five years previously,
in reply to a letter sent to his firm by Messrs. Ross & Primrose,
Cunard had written: “We have received your letter of the 22nd inst.
We are entirely unacquainted with the cost of a steamboat, and would
not like to embark in a business of which we are quite ignorant. Must,
therefore, decline taking any part in the one you propose getting up.”
Now in those days the arrangements for postal contracts were in the
hands of the British Admiralty, who were so impressed by the wonderful
steamship achievements of 1838 that they proceeded to issue circulars
inviting tenders for the carrying of American mails by steamers. It
so happened that one of these circulars fell into the hands of Samuel
Cunard of Halifax, who owned a number of sailing ships trading between
Boston, Newfoundland and Bermuda. He had been one of the shareholders
of the first _Royal William_, which had crossed in 1833 from Nova
Scotia to Cowes. Having read the circular and made up his mind, he
came to London in order to raise the required money, but the merchants
would have nothing to do with the scheme. From the secretary of the
East India Company he obtained a letter of introduction to Mr. Robert
Napier, a Clyde shipbuilder and engineer, who in turn introduced
him to Mr. George Burns, and the latter introduced him to Mr. David
MacIver. Each of these two last mentioned was an expert in the shipping
business, and in a few days the necessary capital of £270,000 was
subscribed. A tender was then made to the Admiralty for the conveyance
of Her Majesty’s mails once a fortnight between Liverpool, Halifax and
Boston. This was accepted in competition, and a contract was signed for
seven years. It was agreed that the service was to be carried on by
four ships, that fixed dates of sailings should be adhered to, and that
the company should be subsidised to the extent of £81,000 a year.
Thus the famous Cunard Company was founded. Cunard came to London,
Burns to Glasgow and MacIver to Liverpool, and to these three men we
owe a great deal of the subsequent development of Atlantic shipping
and the progress of the Mercantile Marine. The company was at first
known as “The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company,” and in the year 1840 these four wooden ships were built on
the Clyde and supplied with engines by Robert Napier. The first was the
_Britannia_, followed by the _Acadia_, _Caledonia_ and _Columbia_. They
were propelled by paddle-wheels, carried 115 cabin passengers and 225
tons of cargo, and they were all approximately 1154 tons, and 207 feet
long. Regardless of superstition, _Britannia_ began her maiden voyage
on a Friday, which happened to be July 4, a day which commemorated
another kind of Independence. After a fine trip of eleven days and
four hours she reached Halifax, and thence proceeded to Boston, just a
fortnight plus eight hours out from Liverpool. The citizens of Boston
celebrated the historic event with banqueting and enthusiasm, and thus
was forged one of those links which have bound the two nations together
for so many years ever since.
Following the precedent of the Cunard Company, the Royal Mail Line
in March 1840, obtained a contract to carry the mails in at least
fourteen “good substantial and efficient steam vessels” to the West
Indies, whither previously the mails had been carried in gun-brigs. The
contract was for ten years from December 1841. All the ships were named
after British rivers, and they used to depart from Falmouth, the voyage
taking from seventeen to eighteen days. It is evidence of the great
spread of shipbuilding already that these fourteen ships were built at
Northfleet on the Thames, Greenock, Dumbarton, Leith and even Cowes.
The fleet cost about £1,000,000 sterling, but the Government gave them
a subsidy of £240,000 a year. The undertaking was very successful, and
presently Southampton took the place of Falmouth. Then in 1851 the
Royal Mail Line extended their service to South America. Gradually the
heavy subsidy dropped to £85,000 a year, and was finally abolished in
June 1905.
As further evidence of the solid belief which the steamship had now
won, it is only necessary to refer to the Pacific Steam Navigation
Company, which received its charter in 1840. It is now amalgamated with
the Royal Mail Line, but in those days, whilst the latter served the
east side of South America, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company served
the Pacific coast of that continent by going round through the Magellan
Straits. Their two ships the _Chile_ and _Peru_ were in fact the first
two steamers which ever passed through those straits. What a wonderful
change since the time of Drake’s ships!
But there is still one more important event which belongs to the year
1840, for this was the date when there was incorporated by royal
charter the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company. The
foundation of the Peninsular Company dates back to 1837, and a regular
service of mail packets was instituted from London to Lisbon and
Gibraltar, though even a little prior to this date its ships had begun
running to the Peninsula. The first steamship owned by the Peninsular
Company was the 209-ton paddler _William Fawcett_, built in the year
1829, and she ran from London to Lisbon and Gibraltar. In 1840 the
line was extended to Malta and Alexandria, and its title changed from
Peninsular to Peninsular and Oriental. There was as yet no Suez Canal,
so from Alexandria passengers and goods were sent by the Mahmoudieh
Canal to the Nile, whence they proceeded by steamer to Cairo, and from
there travelled through the desert on camels as far as Suez. It was
thus a laborious business, 3000 camels being employed for transporting
a single steamer’s loading, every package requiring three separate
transfers; and for nearly thirty years this continued until the Suez
Canal was opened in 1869.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
TWO EARLY MAIL STEAMSHIPS.
This picture of 1842 shows two of the General Steam Navigation
Company’s vessels at Rotterdam. The 600-ton “Ocean” leaving, and the
500-ton “Giraffe” arriving.]
But this company first sent a steamer to India via the Cape in 1842.
This was the 1800-ton _Hindostan_, with 500-horse-power engines. In
1844 the P. & O. undertook the mail service from England to Alexandria,
and thus from Suez to Ceylon, Calcutta and China. The service between
Suez and Bombay was carried on by the East India Company, in order to
keep alive their navy, but in 1854 this service was absorbed by the
P. & O., who in 1852 had also started a branch line from Singapore
to Australia. Then in 1869 came the opening of the Suez Canal, and
thus was broken down the last barrier which separated India from the
trader. A tremendous impulse was given now to shipping; for the
first time vessels need not go round the Cape of Good Hope, and so once
again the Mediterranean ceased to be a backwater and the route to the
East was now more like what it was before the Portuguese, Dutch and
Elizabethan English had begun to undertake their Oriental voyages. It
is interesting to remark that in the same year which saw the opening
of the Suez Canal the two fastest clipper ships which ever sailed were
both afloat—_Thermopylae_ and _Cutty Sark_. The latter made her maiden
voyage in the following February. Thus, at a time when sailing ships
were passing the Cape at a record speed, the canal was being opened and
putting an end to the sail-driven vessel’s usefulness after so many
centuries, linking it up with Vasco da Gama and earlier.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] By the amalgamation of the Register of Shipping (1760) and the New
Register Book of Shipping (1799).
CHAPTER XV
THE IRON AND STEEL AGE
In a very few years, then, the increasing success of the steamer,
together with the opening of the Suez Canal and firm establishment of
several steamship companies carrying mails east, west and south, gave
the glorious sailing ships a blow from which they have never since
recovered. Mechanically-propelled craft were now seen everywhere. In
1841 the Blackwall yard launched the 666-ton paddler _Princess Royal_
and the 875-ton paddler _Trident_ for the General Steam Navigation
Company. The latter craft was one of the fastest vessels afloat, and
on Queen Victoria’s first visit to Scotland this ship so far surpassed
the royal yacht in speed that _Trident_ was chartered for Her Majesty’s
party on the return voyage.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “TRIDENT.”
Of the General Steam Navigation Company, arriving at Woolwich on
September 13, 1842, with Queen Victoria on board after her visit to
Scotland. “Trident” was of 875 tons.]
From 1840 to about 1860 the Cunard ships had practically a monopoly of
the Atlantic steamship trade, though as long as they used paddle-wheels
they were not very serious competitors with the sailing craft. It was
the advent of iron and steel, of the high-pressure and compound engines
which was to give the steamships the virtues of economy and efficiency
and thus a superiority over the old-fashioned craft. From 1850 for the
next eight years there was in the North Atlantic a certain amount of
opposition from a steamship company called the Collins Line, which had
been subsidised by the United States Government. After a burst of
keen rivalry, the Collins Line withdrew from the contest. In 1850 came
the Inman Line, which kept up the running for many years until in 1893
it was reorganised and became merged in the American Line. In 1866 was
founded the Guion Line, which certainly had a great influence for a
time in accelerating the development of the big steamship. And then in
1870 came the White Star Line, which, excepting the Cunard Line and
a temporary influence of the two German lines, has done more for the
improvement in design and speed and comfort in regard to steamships
than all the other companies put together.
We must now see how this all came about. It depended really on two
things: first, the use of iron, and subsequently steel, for the
building of bigger hulls; and secondly, the invention of the screw
propeller to take the place of the old-fashioned paddle-wheel. Briefly
how this came to pass is as follows. As far back as 1821 a Mr. Aaron
Manby had built an iron craft 120 feet long and 18 feet wide, and she
steamed from London to Paris, being employed for the next twenty years
on the Seine. She was thus the first iron ship to put to sea, and was
called the _Aaron Manby_, after her builder. Then in 1832 Laird & Co.
of Birkenhead built the 148-ton paddler _Lady Lansdowne_ for the trade
between England and Ireland. But it was not until 1843 that the first
really large iron ship, the famous _Great Britain_, was built, intended
as an improvement on the _Great Western_.
But before we speak of the _Great Britain_ we must see something of
the way the propeller came in, for the two subjects are intimately
connected. At its best the paddle-wheel, except for excursion steamers
and certain kinds of tugs, is a very clumsy means of driving a ship
through the water. It is the most obvious, because historically it is
analogous to the action of the duck, of the first primitive man who
paddled his small craft, or of the later Egyptians who rowed with oars
down the Nile. But for open sea work the paddle-wheel is an awkward
encumbrance, and apart from tugs and pleasure steamers it was last
seen, in European waters at least, in the mail steamers running from
England to Flushing and Ostend comparatively recently.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
THE “ROBERT F. STOCKTON.”
(Captain Ericsson, 1839.)]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
AN EARLY CROSS-CHANNEL STEAMER.
This picture of 1855 shows the English and French Royal Mail Steam
Packets “Queen” and “Empress.”]
But for a long time there had been efforts made to introduce the
screw propeller. As far back as 1804 John Stevens crossed the Hudson
in a little vessel driven by a screw propeller, but it was not until
thirty-two years later that John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer,
reintroduced the screw and patented it. In 1837 his propeller was
successfully tried in the 45-foot _Francis B. Ogden_, and in the
following year the Lairds built at Birkenhead the 63-foot _Robert F.
Stockton_, which obtained the extraordinary speed of thirteen knots on
the Thames, going with the tide, and she afterwards went across the
Atlantic, where she was turned into a tug. But in England Francis Smith
was at work on the screw problem and obtained a patent in the same year
as Ericsson, and his invention was tried with success in a 6-ton boat.
Smith’s patent was bought by a syndicate; and in 1838 was launched the
240-ton three-master _Archimedes_, fitted with Smith’s screw, and after
she had steamed round Great Britain and across the Bay of Biscay, the
prejudiced and “old-timers” began to believe in the new idea. Next
year was launched the much larger _Novelty_, which was the first
cargo ship to be fitted with a screw, and she proceeded from London to
Constantinople and back. She was also the first ship to be fitted with
an iron mast.
We have thus arrived at the stage when the iron ship and the screw
propeller had become practicable, and thus the future of the steamer
was moulded. Wood was all very well until the demand for increased
tonnage arrived, but when it was proposed to construct the 3618-ton
_Great Britain_ there was nothing for it but to use iron. Here was
a ship to be 822 feet long with 50½ feet beam, able to carry 260
passengers and 1200 tons of cargo. As no contractor could be found
willing to build such a ship, the Great Western Steamship Company at
Bristol constructed her themselves. She was designed by Brunel, but
she turned out to be an awkward, ill-fated monstrosity. Launched in
July 1843, she was unable to enter the river until December of the
following year, owing to delay in the alteration of the dock. It was
originally intended to fit her with the usual paddle-wheels, but the
arrival of the _Archimedes_ in the port caused Brunel to modify the
designs, so that his ship should be driven by a six-bladed propeller.
She was a curious, six-masted craft with a bowsprit and painted ports,
and in July 1845, after making a trip to London, left Liverpool with
sixty passengers and 600 tons of cargo, reaching New York after a
voyage of fifteen days. On the return journey her best day’s steaming
was 287 miles. One night during September of the following year, after
leaving the Mersey, she ran ashore off the Irish coast in Dundrum Bay,
where she remained for eleven months exposed to all weathers. Brunel
cleverly had a wooden breakwater, loaded with stones, built round her,
and she was eventually refloated and taken into Liverpool. She was now
sold for a quarter of her original cost of £100,000, was turned into a
full-rigged ship for the Australian trade, and eventually became a coal
hulk.
But in spite of her failure this ship showed that an iron hull and a
screw as propeller were a practicable combination. She was divided
into five water-tight compartments, she was fitted with bilge-keels to
minimise rolling, and instead of the heavy wooden bulwarks possessed
by contemporary ships and inherited from the time when the Tudor ships
mounted their cannon, _Great Britain_ had iron rails with netting, so
that any seas shipped could get away easily. Thus, this unfortunate
vessel, in spite of her ill-luck, did introduce new ideas into the
Mercantile Marine. It was in 1856 that the Cunard Company built the
_Persia_, of iron. She was a 3300-ton ship, but had paddle-wheels,
and then, six years later, came their _Scotia_, which was the last
and finest paddle-ship ever built for the Atlantic service. She had
seven water-tight compartments and a double bottom, thanks to the
influence of _Great Britain_, and she lowered the record of crossing
the Atlantic to just two hours under the nine days. The sailing ship
as a passenger-carrier across that ocean was now definitely beaten,
and the future simply consisted in the more thorough perfecting of the
steamships; there was no going back now, notwithstanding the fact that
in the Eastern trades the full-rigged ships were still making such
wonderful passages.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN.”
After her launching in 1858.]
The advance of engineering and science, the amount of valuable data
which had been obtained during these years of steam propulsion, had
already brought steamship building to be no rule-of-thumb method,
but a highly technical art. About the middle of the century, John Scott
Russell, for instance, made some valuable researches regarding the
resistance of a ship’s hull passing through the water, and in 1860 Sir
Edward Harland, founder of the famous Belfast yard of Harland & Wolff,
introduced steamers into the Mediterranean with a length of ten times
their beam. This novel idea was so successful that when he came to
build the White Star steamships he carried out that same idea, which
was yet another important influence in the evolution of the modern
Atlantic liner. But even in 1852 a tremendous improvement was seen in
the hull of the _Victoria_, which was built of iron to the design of
Brunel & Scott Russell for the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation
Company. She was designed to embody the wave-line theory and for a
speed of ten knots, and instead of the clumsy, ponderous hulls, you
find in the _Victoria_ smoothness, gracefulness and sweet lines. It is
therefore not altogether surprising that she won the £500 prize offered
by the Colonies for the fastest voyage to Australia, her time from
Gravesend to Adelaide being sixty days, including two days’ delay at
St. Vincent. She was propelled by a two-bladed screw.
Thus in the fewest possible years a remarkable change had come over
the Mercantile Marine, and though the old die-hards—those fine artists
of the marlin-spike—still heartily despised every kind of steamship,
yet others could see well enough that an entirely new order of things
had begun owing to the advance in engineering. The ship, as in
regard to other creatures, had to advance with the times. The first
settlement in Australia had taken place as far back as 1788, and now
required better lines of communication. So, too, with the East and
the great strides which North and South America were making. Pioneers,
emigrants, business men were exercising a pressure which could be met
only in bigger and faster ships. Thanks to the peace and prosperity
of the mid-Victorian era, new ideas were emerging. Gone were the
days of monopolies and worn-out rules: the last trace of mediævalism
in shipping had been severed, and men were thinking out freely and
unfettered the problems of transport.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN.”
Also known as the “Leviathan.” Length 680 ft., beam 83 ft.; beam across
paddle-boxes 120 ft.; depth (deck to keel) 58ft.; 22,500 tons; draught
(laden) 30 ft.; paddle engines 1,200 horse-power; screw engines 1,800
horse-power. Accommodation for 4,000 passengers.]
It was quite a remarkable achievement that in 1853 the _Himalaya_ was
built at Blackwall for the P. & O. line. Here was an iron vessel of
4690 tons, which succeeded in making a record run to Gibraltar at an
average speed of thirteen and a half knots. No wonder that the year
after she was built she was purchased by the British Government. And
then came that wonder of the world, the historic _Great Eastern_,
which was the biggest ship ever built for nearly fifty years, until
the White Star _Baltic_ came out in 1905. The _Great Eastern_ is best
described as a costly freak, but she shows the marvellous courage and
enterprise of the Victorian age. It was Brunel’s idea that a ship
should be built so as to carry a very large number of passengers and an
enormous cargo all the way to Australia without having to coal anywhere
on the voyage. She was to be 679 feet 6 inches long, with 82 feet 8
inches beam, of 18,915 tons, and driven by both paddles and a screw.
This five-funnelled, six-masted giantess was built by Scott Russell
on the Thames. She began to be built on May 1, 1854, but she was not
launched at Millwall until the last day of January 1858, the first
attempt to persuade her to enter the water being unsuccessful. As a
financial speculation she was a failure. The attempts to launch her and
the ensuing delay ran into thousands of pounds, and the company which
owned her had to be wound up, but she was sold to a new company for
£160,000. She was unfortunately now put on the Atlantic route, where
she was a financial failure also; then from 1865 to 1873 she was used
in laying the Atlantic submarine telegraph cables, for which she was
found suitable, and finally in 1888 she was beached and then broken
up. Though in a commercial sense she had never succeeded, the _Great
Eastern_ did prove that she was perfectly sound structurally, and never
exhibited any signs of weakness in spite of her enormous length. But
she was really years before her time.
To have built this, or indeed any big ship, of wood could not have been
possible. What rendered practicable the increased length of ships,
able to carry high-powered engines with much space for passengers and
cargo, was the invention of the rolling-mill, which had been brought
about by Henry Cort, who died in 1800. Before this was introduced,
the iron after leaving the furnace had to be hammered into shape. But
nowadays iron and steel can be turned out into suitable plates, so that
shipbuilding really consists in riveting together so many plates as to
form a steel box with shaped ends. Instead of the soft sounds of the
adze and caulking chisel and the wholesome smell of tar, the shipyard
of to-day is a pandemonium of monotonous, buzzing pneumatic riveting
hammers. There is no loving selection of timbers and planking: the
steel plates and girders are just there ready to be put into position.
It is highly unsentimental, but inevitable that development should
proceed along these lines. During the ’seventies steel had been used
for shipbuilding more or less tentatively, but it was not until the
Allan liner _Buenos Ayrean_ that a steel ship was seen in the Atlantic.
Mild steel, because of its ductility and strength and lightness, became
much more suitable than iron, and opened up another era in the story
of the steamship. With the exception of yachts, lifeboats and certain
fishing craft, this is now used universally for constructing hulls.
In 1873 the French had employed steel in building their warships, and
in 1881 the Cunard _Servia_ came out thus constructed. She was the
largest and most powerful ship then built with the exception of _Great
Eastern_, her measurements being 515 feet long, 52 feet beam and 7392
tons gross. She lowered the Atlantic voyage to seven days, one hour,
thirty-eight minutes.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the White Star Line._
S.S. “OCEANIC.”
The first White Star Line steamship. Launched 1870. She measured 420
ft. over all. She was the first of the modern steamship era.]
But a most important influence on the future of the Mercantile Marine
was created when the White Star Line began their competition in the
Atlantic trade. Previously their flag had flown at the masthead of
a fine fleet of sailing clippers. In 1867 the managing owner of the
White Star Line retired, and Mr. T. H. Ismay took over control. He
began by using iron for his Australian clippers instead of wood, and
two years later gave an order to Harland & Wolff, Belfast, to build
steamships for the Atlantic. In August 1870 was launched the first of
the fleet. This was the _Oceanic_, 420 feet long, her beam being only
one-tenth of her length. That proportion was a radical departure in
shipbuilding, and very different from the beamy old “waggons,” as the
old sailing ships were sometimes called. This _Oceanic_ is really the
first of the modern steamships, and contained so many new ideas
as to make all the other steamships old-fashioned. For instance, she
introduced the practice of having the saloon extending the entire width
and placed in the middle of the ship instead of aft. The state-rooms
were placed forward and abaft the saloon, instead of opening out on to
it, which had been the custom derived from the sailing ships. Moreover,
the introduction of glass side-lights on a much larger scale made the
interior of the ship lighter and more pleasant. In fact, what with
this, the revolving chairs instead of the hard seats, the oil-lamps
instead of the spluttering candles, and other details of comfort, the
passenger saw that he was so well looked after that the White Star
became at once a popular line. Ever since that time one company has
vied with another to give the Atlantic passenger the maximum amount of
pleasure and luxury. How little do many of them appreciate the contrast
between the crack steamships of to-day and of fifty or sixty years ago,
when everything had to be learned by hard and costly experience!
The _Oceanic_ was a 3808-ton vessel, and became the fastest steamship
afloat, her four-cylinder compound engines enabling her to average
fourteen and a quarter knots. The first Atlantic line to build all
its steamers of iron had been the Inman Line, which from 1850 to 1892
was one of the chief competitors in that ocean. Founded by William
Inman, its successful policy was to capture the emigration trade which
had been carried on by the sailing ships. Their first ships had been
the _City of Glasgow_ and _City of Manchester_, built of iron and
propelled by a single screw. They inaugurated the custom of calling at
Queenstown, and began running to New York instead of Philadelphia. The
first so-called Atlantic “greyhound” was built by the Guion Line. In
1879 came their _Arizona_, which unfortunately ran at full speed into
an iceberg, but her water-tight bulkhead enabled her to get into St.
John’s, Newfoundland. Her advent was followed by the _Oregon_, built
in 1882, and she created a sensation by making the run from Queenstown
to New York in six days, fourteen hours. This was a 7375-ton ship,
which, with her speed of nineteen knots, made her the fastest vessel
afloat, and was purchased by the Cunard Company; but she in turn was
eclipsed by the two famous Cunarders, _Umbria_ in 1884 and _Etruria_ in
the following year. These two wonderful craft were to be used as armed
cruisers if required, and never were more satisfactory ships built to
give their owners so little trouble. In respect of speed, also, they
broke all records, _Etruria_ crossing from Queenstown to New York
in six days, six hours and thirty-six minutes in 1885, while seven
years later _Umbria_ surpassed this by maintaining an average of over
nineteen and a half knots.
And whilst all this activity was proceeding in the Atlantic, ships
driven by steam were running regularly to the East, though the
competition in this sphere was not keen. In 1877 the Orient Line was
founded. One of their ships, the _Austral_, launched in 1881, was lying
in Sydney Harbour with her scuttles open, but owing to a heavy list
caused through unequal coaling the water poured in and she sank in
fifty feet of water. She was, however, refloated several months later.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “SULTAN.”
2,225 tons, 240 horse-power. J. Maddison, R.N.R., Commander. About
1873.]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “ORIENT.”
About 1879. Owned by Orient Steam Navigation Company. 5,386 tons, 5,400
horse-power, length 460 ft., beam 46 ft. 6 in.]
Up till the ’eighties it was customary for the crack liners to carry
three and even four masts with yards and both a fore staysail and
square-sails. It was a practice which exhibited the last suspicion of
steam, for it was argued that if the propeller should become damaged,
or the shaft break there would at least be canvas enough for her to
get along. But, with the introduction and general adoption of the
twin-screw, masts became fewer, yards and canvas disappeared, and
the seaman who had been brought up to go aloft and lay-out along a
yard found himself a mere deckhand. He had seen the golden age of the
full-rigged pass away, and the last resemblance in the steamship to the
Blackwall frigates and the clippers remained only in the clipper bows
of the Inman Line, who for so long kept up the useless but ornamental
bowsprit even as late as the ’nineties. It is with the launch of their
_City of New York_ and _City of Paris_, the latter in 1888, that twin
screws of a large size were introduced into the Mercantile Marine, and
here begins the final chapter in the steamship’s development, for it
gave her an independence and increase of efficiency which never before
has she possessed nor since lost.
CHAPTER XVI
THE MODERN MERCHANT SHIP
The dominating factors which now influenced the development of the
Atlantic liner were speed and comfort. Owing to the rapid increase of
commerce between the United States and Great Britain, the West had
long since taken the place of the Orient as a magnetic attraction for
the shipowner. It is the Atlantic and not the route to India which has
seen the great improvements in the modern ship, and even if there had
been keener competition to the East, it would not have been possible to
increase much the size of steamships for the reason of the limitations
imposed by the Suez Canal. It is conceivable, however, that some day
the route to Australia round the Cape may become a lane of keen rivalry
to the advantage of ship development.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “SPAIN.”
5,000 tons register. Of the National Line (New York to London).]
The struggle for the speed supremacy of the North Atlantic went
on. The _City of Paris_ was a flier. She could do her nineteen and
twenty knots. But the White Star Line replied with the _Teutonic_
and _Majestic_, both launched in 1889. They, too, were fliers, for
the former broke the record by steaming from Queenstown to New
York in five days, eighteen hours, eight minutes, while the latter
did it in five days, sixteen hours, thirty-one minutes. They were,
of course, twin-screw ships, but of only 9984 tons, which in this
advanced twentieth century seems quite small for a crack liner. The
competition was continued by the Cunard Company launching in 1892
the _Campania_, and in the following year the _Lucania_, fitted with
twin screws and triple-expansion engines. Beautiful ships these were,
with lovely lines and an amazing turn of speed. Steel had, of course,
long since taken the place of iron, and in the building of these two
wonderful vessels the plates were made of unprecedented size, and so
they required a smaller number of rivets. These were 600-feet ships,
and it was their length which helped to give them the 22-knot speed.
_Campania_ made the run between Queenstown and New York in five and a
half days, and averaged just under twenty-two knots for a whole year’s
east-bound voyages. This was a truly remarkable performance, for the
real criterion of efficiency is that a ship should be able not merely
to make one spectacular hour’s run, nor break the record for one day or
one voyage, but to keep on doing this all the time. Here is the test of
good steamship management ashore, perfect organisation aboard and the
reason for the highest praise to her officers and crew.
The point we have now reached represents the era of keen competition
for the best-equipped and speediest steamships in the Atlantic, and
therefore of all the Mercantile Marines in the world. In this race the
Collins Line, though subsidised by the American Government, had already
disappeared, the reorganised Inman Line, which had been absorbed in the
American Line, in spite of its fine ships, ceased to be a dangerous
competitor. In the end it became a contest between the two British
lines, the Cunard and the White Star. The German liners now entered the
Atlantic as very serious competitors. It will be more convenient to
deal with the German Mercantile Marine in a separate chapter, but it
may be said here that it was the wonderful achievements of _Campania_
and _Lucania_ which created such emulation that the North German Lloyd
Company scrapped their old-fashioned ships and in 1897 produced the
_Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, which by her mean speed of 22·81 knots
beat the Cunarders, and thus for the first time Germany won the “blue
riband” of the Atlantic, as the expression was in the ’nineties.
In 1899 came the British reply in size though not in speed. This was
the White Star _Oceanic_, 13 feet longer than the memorable _Great
Eastern_, measuring 705 feet, as against the German’s 648 feet 7
inches. _Oceanic’s_ 28,500 tons displacement showed the extraordinary
development which had taken place in the shipbuilding art in the
fewest years, and she was able to maintain a speed of twenty knots.
The Cunard’s next ships were two, _Ivernia_ and _Saxonia_, each of
about 14,000 tons gross—that is to say, roughly the size of the German
champion, but with an average speed of fifteen and a quarter knots.
They were comfortable and economical rather than record-breakers. But
the _Ivernia_ was the first Atlantic liner to break away from the
triple-expansion and use the quadruple-expansion system. The White Star
Line, in 1901 and 1908, respectively, brought out two enormous but slow
ships in the _Celtic_ and _Cedric_, the former being 20,880 tons and
the latter 21,034 tons, with an average speed of sixteen knots, and at
this time also came their 15,801-ton _Arabic_, with the same speed.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the White Star Line._
THE “BRITANNIC.”
This White Star liner was built in 1874, and broke the record for
speed. She measured 468 ft. long. Speed 16 knots; 5,000 tons.]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the Cunard Line._
THE “CAMPANIA.”
Launched for the Cunard Company in 1892. Length 600 ft.]
There was therefore a kind of lull in British enterprise, and in
1903 the Germans caused another sensation by the _Kaiser Wilhelm the
Second_, which was able to do her twenty-three and a half knots as
an average speed from New York to Plymouth. But a new development was
again to take place. Competition was so keen in the steamship world,
there was such an impetus to the builder, and so many clever minds were
working on the problems of propulsion, that it was inevitable that all
these wonderful changes should come about in such rapid succession.
In the year 1886 the triple-expansion engine had come into general
use. This had been followed by the quadruple-expansion, as already
mentioned, and now came a still further change. For some time the
turbine engine had been employed for driving electric dynamos on land,
for pumping stations, colliery fans and so on. But in 1894 this type
was installed experimentally in the 44-ton craft called the _Turbinia_,
which was seen racing along Spithead at thirty-four knots. It was a
wonderful sight, but it was not until 1905 that this type of engine was
introduced into merchant ships, when the Atlantic ships _Virginian_[6]
and _Victorian_ of the Allan Line were fitted with Parsons’ triplicate
turbines driving three propellers. In the same year the Cunard produced
their first turbine liner, _Carmania_, which on her trial attained a
speed of twenty knots. She was built of a strength in excess of Board
of Trade requirements, no fewer than 1,800,000 rivets being used in her
construction, each plate being 32 feet long. But for the excellence of
her construction she would never have been able to emerge successfully
from her famous duel when she sank the _Cap Trafalgar_ off the South
American coast during the first autumn of the recent Great War.
Events happen so quickly, and one sensation follows so rapidly on
another, that we are apt sometimes to get quite a wrong perspective. To
me the _Carmania_ is one of the most interesting ships afloat. For nine
years before the war she did most excellent work as one of the finest
passenger ships, carrying many thousands of people across the Atlantic
in comfort and luxury. Then came the war, and _Carmania_ became an
armed merchant cruiser and was sent into South American waters. She met
the Hamburg-South America liner _Cap Trafalgar_, a very similar ship,
also armed as a merchant cruiser, off the island of Trinidada, and then
fought a terrific duel which lasted eighty minutes, during which the
Cunarder was pierced by seventy-nine shells, set seriously on fire and
generally made desolate. But she sank the _Cap Trafalgar_, and to-day,
and since the war, _Carmania_ has resumed carrying her thousands across
to New York in perfect luxury again, with verandah cafés, costly
furniture, palm trees and the rest, just as if nothing serious had ever
happened. Truly the modern ship is an amazing creature.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the Cunard Line._
BERTHING A BIG LINER.
The “Mauretania,” assisted by tugs, coming alongside the quay at
Southampton.]
During the war 56 per cent. of the Cunard ships were sunk, including
the memorable _Lusitania_; and the White Star Line, owing to the same
reason, lost close on 150,000 tons. The _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_
had followed the _Carmania_, and were the outcome of an agreement made
with the British Government to produce two ships capable of maintaining
a minimum average ocean speed of from twenty-four to twenty-five knots
in moderate weather. This has not only been maintained, but surpassed.
_Mauretania_ was built in 1907, with turbines, a length of 790 feet,
and her tonnage is 31,000 gross. In spite of all her running before
the war, during the war, and since, she still holds the record not
merely for the Atlantic, but for all seas in respect of merchant ships.
The test accepted by most shipping experts is two-fold: the highest
average speed for the whole voyage, and the fastest passage in days,
hours and minutes. On this reckoning _Mauretania_ still leads, in spite
of her younger sisters, for as recently as 1922 she averaged 25·29
knots eastward-bound in June. Her fastest passage in July of that year
of five days, eight hours, nine minutes, entitles her still more to
possession of the “blue riband” of the Atlantic. But as showing the
remarkable consistency in running, if we take her three consecutive
passages eastward across the Atlantic in June and July 1922, there are
only _five_ minutes difference between the fastest and the slowest.
It is superfluous to comment on this achievement. At a time when
her fighting sister _Indomitable_ is being broken up, this powerful
merchantman still goes on beating records. Recently fitted to burn
oil-fuel, this turbine-driven, quadruple-screw, twenty-five knotter
will long be remembered in maritime history as _Lusitania_ will in
naval history.[7]
The next famous Atlantic ships were the two White Star liners _Titanic_
and _Olympic_. The tragic end of the former, when she foundered during
her maiden voyage, is too well remembered to need relating again. The
_Olympic_ left Southampton on her maiden voyage in June 1911. She is a
triple-screw vessel of 46,489 tons gross register, and thus much bigger
than _Mauretania_, but not quite so fast. Those of us who remember
passing _Olympic_ at sea during the war, zigzagging through the
submarine zone with 5000 soldiers on board and the ship’s boats swung
out, will never forget the sight. One hears many impossible yarns about
certain claims, but apart from her magnificent work in bringing armies
from America to Europe safely, this ship did definitely sink a German
submarine. This may be regarded as some compensation for the loss
of that new triple-screw White Star _Britannic_, a vessel of 48,158
tons gross register, which was destined never to cross the Atlantic,
for which she had been constructed. The reader will remember that on
November 21, 1916, after much excellent service as a hospital ship, she
was sunk by enemy action in the Zea Channel, Ægean Sea.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the Cunard Line._
MODERN NAVIGATION.
Captain Sir James Charles, K.B.E., C.B., R.D., R.N.R., and officers of
the “Aquitania” taking the sun’s altitude.]
_Olympic_ came out as the world’s biggest ship, and she is one of the
fastest. On one occasion coming up Channel she recently touched 27·82
knots for a brief spell, but her best average speed for a whole voyage
is 22·55 knots, and her quickest passage is five days, nineteen hours,
12 minutes. For the consideration of the big German liners who were
competing with these efforts the reader is referred to the chapter
dealing with the rise and fall of the German Mercantile Marine, but the
next British mammoth was the _Aquitania_, which was put into the
Cunard service just before the war began. She is over 900 feet long,
she can steam at a little more than twenty-three knots, and her best
passage, east-bound, has been five days, nineteen hours, forty-one
minutes. Her gross tonnage is 47,000.
I watched _Aquitania_ being built, from the time when she was a mere
mass of steel, and finally saw her take the water in the Clyde, and
walked all over her half an hour before this impressive event took
place. She was barely ready for her intended work than she was turned
into an armed merchant cruiser and joined Admiral Phipps Hornby’s
Cruiser Squadron on the Atlantic trade route. But it was rather like
putting a race-horse to do the work of a cart-horse. _Aquitania_ was
then, like other merchantmen, coal-burning, and her endurance was
only six days, for she was built for the purpose of rushing across
the Atlantic, then filling up and returning as fast as she could.
She was thus not suitable for patrolling, and after colliding with a
Leyland liner, whilst under the command of a naval officer, _Aquitania_
terminated her engagement as a warship, and then did far more useful
work during the time of hostilities, until she again took up her
peaceable service.
This was the last British-built merchant ship to be constructed of
mammoth size that is still afloat. The White Star _Homeric_, which
joined the Atlantic service in the spring of 1922, is an ex-German
vessel. This ship is neither as big nor as fast as _Aquitania_, but she
is the largest twin-screw steamer afloat. Her best average speed for a
whole trip is 18·69 knots, and her best voyage is six days, nineteen
hours, twenty-two minutes. But the slump which followed the war and the
depression which came over the shipping trade made it undesirable to
lay down any more of these leviathans for the present, and there was
still another reason.
In Germany were two such vessels, one of which was already built and
had been running for a year or two, and the other, a still bigger
ship, was not yet finished. These two ships were handed over to Great
Britain, the former being the _Imperator_, 52,022 tons, launched in
1912, which used to call at Southampton on her way from Germany to New
York. The other ship was the 56,551-ton _Bismarck_, whose keel had been
laid by the Kaiser in the year 1914. The _Vaterland_, as mentioned in
another chapter, measuring 950 feet and 52,282 tons, was acquired by
the United States. The _Imperator_ now became the _Berengaria_, and was
taken over by the Cunard Company; the _Bismarck_ became the _Majestic_,
and was put into the White Star service in the spring of 1922. She
was built at the Blohm and Voss yard, Hamburg, and with her enormous
tonnage and length of 956 feet is the biggest ship in the world.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the Cunard Line._
S.S. “BERENGARIA.”
This Cunarder is the ex-German “Imperator,” 52,022 tons, launched 1912.
She measures 919 ft. long.]
Though built in Germany, which learned the art from Great Britain,
these two ships are now the pride of the British Merchant Fleet, and
they are, together with the _Mauretania_ and _Aquitania_, consumers
not of coal, but of oil. The _Berengaria_ measures 919 feet long, is
practically 100 feet in beam, and represents an enormous amount of
capital; but she was laid aside for six or seven months so as to have
a complete overhaul and to be converted from coal-burning. With that
fuel she had been able to do a little over twenty-three knots, and her
best average speed has since been 23·38 knots for the whole voyage;
her fastest trip being five days, eighteen hours, forty-seven minutes.
You can imagine the responsibility of her captain, handling such
an enormous steel island. Let us forget for a moment such things as
her new ballroom, able to accommodate 250 dancers. Let us forget, too,
the cafés, gymnasia, palm courts, Turkish and swimming-baths and the
numbers of private suites, the velvet carpets, and baronial halls; let
us just think of her as a ship.
Eighty-five feet above the water is the sun-deck promenade, and away
above that again rises the bridge. Here are all sorts of gadgets,
such as a bell that rings automatically when the temperature of the
sea drops below a certain degree, and so the warning is made to the
officer of the watch that icebergs are about. Tell-tale lamps act as
fire-indicators, and another bell rings to call attention to the fact
that there is smoke in some section of the ship. Steam pressure is
then made to drive water down a pipe to spray around the particular
compartment. There are telephones galore, from the bridge to the
engine-room, boiler-rooms, baggage-hold, purser’s office, engineer’s
office and, via the ship’s central exchange, to all parts of the ship.
_Berengaria_, like _Vaterland_, had a good deal of trouble with her
water-tube boilers, which were similar to the German naval pattern,
but in _Majestic_ British engineers introduced some modifications
whilst she was still being completed at Hamburg. The point is this.
Whereas these water-tube boilers are all right for a man-of-war, which
normally steams at fifteen knots and only occasionally is whacked up
to twenty-one and above, the liner is driven hard all the time, and
has to maintain her full speed day and night until she gets across
the ocean. The amount of oil-fuel required for _Berengaria_ to cross
the Atlantic once is about 6000 tons, and this is carried in side or
wing-bunkers. A hundred tons an hour can be supplied to each of the
four boiler-rooms, and the engines are, of course, turbines.
It is said that £1,000,000 was the price the White Star Line paid
for the _Majestic_, and she was a great bargain at that, for she
would cost four times that amount to be built to-day. There are
forty-eight boilers, and she can carry enough oil-fuel for the round
voyage Southampton-New York-Southampton. This means not merely greater
efficiency in regard to steaming, but saves time and expense in
bunkering and cleaning ship, for it takes only six hours and very few
men to get the 7000 tons on board. Her best average speed in a passage
is over twenty-four knots, and her quickest voyage five days, nine
hours, forty-two minutes. When she was handed over to the Reparations
Commission under the terms of the Peace Treaty her speed was returned
as twenty-three knots. But the White Star officials were not a little
surprised to find, while bringing the ship to Southampton from Hamburg,
that her turbines would develop much more power than they were
credited with, and that she was really a 25-knot ship. In fact, on one
occasion she did an average of twenty-seven knots for over five hours
eastward-bound.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the White Star Line._
S.S. “OLYMPIC.”
This 46,439-ton White Star liner was completed in 1911. During the war
she sank a German submarine.]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the White Star Line._
S.S. “MAJESTIC.”
This 56,551-ton White Star liner is the ex-German “Bismarck,” and is
the biggest ship in the world. The illustration shows her coming out of
dock at Southampton.]
It is significant that more than half the length of the ship is taken
up with the propelling machinery. Never were such large machinery and
boiler plant installed in one vessel. If you think of an eight-roomed
house and multiply this by 400, you get some idea of her interior
space. She is practically a floating town, with its smart hotel,
suites, clubs, and so on located on her nine steel decks; and four
propellers to keep this town hurrying across the Atlantic.
Swimming-bath, two royal suites, 1245 state-rooms, a restaurant,
palm court, foyer, lounge—there is no end to her luxurious internal
arrangement. And yet there are all sorts of cunning devices to ensure
safety. To guard against fire, the steel bulkheads have been coated
with fireproof material; the main staircases are so arranged that
they can be isolated and thus ensure a means of escape to the upper
decks. There are 450 fire alarms distributed throughout the ship, which
indicate automatically to the officer on the bridge.
There are three wireless stations. The largest enables her to maintain
permanent connection with both the Old and the New World during the
whole voyage. The second is for use over a distance of 800 miles, and
the third is for emergency. There are anti-rolling tanks, submarine
signalling gear, and indeed every ingenious device that the wit of man
could invent for the safety and welfare of the 4000 passengers she
takes care of each trip. During Cowes week 1922 King George V paid
to her, and through her to the British Mercantile Marine, a singular
honour in going aboard to inspect her. His Royal Standard was broken
out at the main, and this is one of the very few occasions during the
last four hundred years when a merchant ship, serving as such, has
legally hoisted this flag. It did occur in the year 1913, when His
Majesty inspected the _Mauretania_ at Liverpool; and on that day a
Harbour Board tug while taking the King to and from the liner flew the
Royal Ensign. But prior to that I think we have to go right back to the
year 1495, when Henry VII granted to John Cabot and his sons the right
to fly the royal banners and flags during their voyages of discovery.
From the _Majestic_ to the earliest merchantmen of the Mediterranean,
even looking back a hundred years to the time when the old East
Indiamen of 1000 tons were wallowing along, or the Falmouth packets
were braving the Atlantic, seems to us a period of time that is hardly
believable. In spite of wars and every kind of crises, never has the
merchant ship so utterly and marvellously transformed herself within
such a few years. It is a triumph of man over matter that he can build
up such a creation as a 50,000-ton ship, but there are just two things
which always seem to me more wonderful still. The first is that you can
ever launch such a mass of steel safely from the land down the ways
into the water; and the second is that, having fitted her out for sea,
she can be made obedient to the mind of her commander—checked, spurred
on, controlled and moved about across the sea at will, with confidence
and remarkable regularity. It is an interesting experience to control
finance, it is a great task to control men, and it is a responsible
task to control the ship of State. But to control the biggest ship
in the history of the world, costing over £1,000,000 sterling and
containing several thousands of travellers, from quay to quay, through
any kind of weather that may come along—this to me seems, above all, a
full-sized man’s job. It is one that brings forth everything that is
best and noble in the calling of a sailor—courage, coolness, organising
ability, leadership, self-reliance, dependability, tact, discipline.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the White Star Line._
ON THE BRIDGE OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SHIP.
Captain Sir Bertram Hayes (third from the right), with the Second
Captain and other officers of “Majestic”.]
Below are the saloons, orchestra, dancing, laughter, luxury and
thousands of brilliant lights. On the bridge the silent darkness
of a black, starless night; just the glimmer from the bowls of the
gyro-compass repeaters, the quartermaster at the wheel, a couple of
messengers standing by, and the officer of the watch. And always the
wild roar of the wind as the ship tears on her way at twenty odd knots;
while forward is the swish of the sea as the fine bows throw each
bursting wave aside. It is a study in contrasts, just that immeasurable
gulf which has always existed between the life of the landsman and the
sailor from the earliest days of history until the present-day. To the
former “the wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor,” as
Emerson put it. But it was the same philosopher who admitted that “the
sea is masculine, the type of active strength.”
And, happily, there is such a contagion as sea-fever. Without it there
would have been no Phœnician, Venetian, Spanish, Portuguese, Norse,
mediæval or later mariners; no new worlds to discover—nothing but a
very restricted communication and the minimum of progress. It would
have been a very stunted, dull existence. There would have been no
fine merchantmen of the sea and none of that glorious breed of seamen,
virile, strong and masculine. Let us be thankful for all that the sea
has taught us.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] Now owned by the Swedish-American Line and named the
_Drottningholm_.
[7] The speeds given for _Mauretania_, _Majestic_, _Berengaria_,
_Aquitania_, _Olympic_ and _Homeric_ are from New York to Cherbourg
Breakwater or to the Eddystone Light. The passages quoted are really
not faster than what was previously accomplished on the Liverpool
to New York route before these big liners were transferred to the
Southampton to New York route. Thus the fastest Atlantic voyage ever
made was by _Mauretania_ when she steamed from Queenstown to New York
in four days, ten hours, forty-one minutes. _Lusitania_ accomplished
this in only sixty-one minutes longer. The best average speed ever made
by a liner for one day was 27·10 knots by _Lusitania_, eastward-bound;
but the best average speed for a whole voyage was made by _Mauretania_,
before being converted to oil. She kept up 26·06 knots.
CHAPTER XVII
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GERMAN MERCANTILE MARINE
For about seventy years the German Mercantile Marine had an interesting
career. It began in quite a small way, it was conducted with courage,
enterprise, far-sightedness and, eventually, with an astute cunning
which many people would describe under a stronger term. Its rise was
meteoric, and its descent at the time of its zenith was swifter still.
It is just because the true value of the sea began to be appreciated,
that Germany was able to build up such a vast and highly efficient
service within one generation. The result was that on the eve of the
Great War she was second only to the British Empire as a big owner of
steamships.
[Illustration: BIG SHIP MASTERS.
[_By courtesy the Cunard Line._
Captain C. A. Smith, C.B.E., R.D., R.N.R., of the “Berengaria.”
[_By courtesy the White Star Line._
Captain Sir Bertram Hayes, K.C.M.G., D.S.O., R.N.R., of the “Majestic.”]
At that date 60 per cent. of Germany’s shipping was in the hands of ten
lines, working together with a solidarity that amounted practically to
a shipping union. These ten were the Hamburg-America Line, the North
German Lloyd, the Hamburg South-American Line, the Hansa Line, the
German Australian Line, the Kosmos Line, the Roland Line, the German
East Africa Line, the Woermann Line and the Hamburg-Bremen-Africa
Line. A month before the outbreak of war this huge organisation
comprised 3,194,000 gross tons, to say nothing of the German Levant
Line of 155,000 tons. Well organised, reaching to every part of the
world, subsidised by the German Government to the extent of £107,950
a year, this association was extremely successful in obtaining
an enormous amount of the world’s carrying trade and in furthering
Germany’s political aspirations. It was able to put up the severest
competition and to draw away from the United Kingdom a good deal of
carrying trade, and in their fight with the British companies of
steamships the Germans were helped not merely by subsidies, but by
attractive through-rates over their railway system. It was their unity
and energy in organisation, their ability to cut rates, and their
attention to the smallest details which gave them their vast success.
It is important to emphasise one great distinction. The British Isles
depend for their supplies and overseas trade on the tramp steamer.
Of the British tonnage before the war 60 per cent. represented tramp
tonnage and only 40 per cent. liners, and it was essential for the
nation to have a large amount of “loose” tonnage able to trade at
short notice to any part of the world, taking out, for instance, cheap
coal and coming back with cargoes of grain, cotton, wool, rice and so
on. This policy was the exact opposite of Germany, which built up its
Mercantile Marine on liner trades, and especially in the Atlantic,
their interest in tramp steamers being quite small. Now of those ten
German lines just mentioned the Hamburg-America and the North German
Lloyd, owning on the eve of war 1,093,000 and 716,000 gross tons
respectively, were at once the creative forces and the mainstays of
German shipping. Therefore if we consider their history we have before
us practically the whole evolution of the German Mercantile Marine.
The Hamburg-America Line at the time war broke out was the largest
merchant steamship enterprise in the world, owning between 400 and 500
ships, with seventy-five distinct services, its vessels calling at 400
of the leading ports of the world and carrying over 400,000 passengers
a year. It was thus an enormous corporation, that makes the old
Honourable East India Company look ridiculous. As a means of providing
national wealth and the ready transportation of German goods into the
remotest corners of the globe it was invaluable. It was founded on
May 27, 1847, with a capital of 465,000 marks, and it ordered three
sailing ships in England of about 717 tons each, which carried a score
of first-class passengers and a couple of hundred emigrants and a
little freight. These were full-rigged, three-masted vessels, with
heavy quarters, the white riband and painted square ports and the
high-steeved bowsprit so familiar in English shipping. The average trip
from Hamburg to New York took forty days, and twenty-nine days on the
return voyage. These three ships were the _Deutschland_, _Nordamerika_
and _Rhein_.
In 1854 the company had already prospered so much, thanks largely to
the emigrant traffic, that it decided to go in for steam. The screw was
replacing the paddle in British ships and iron was being used instead
of wood. They therefore gave an order to Caird of Greenock to build a
couple of 2026-ton screw steamers having a speed of about twelve knots.
The first of these was the _Borussia_, a three-masted vessel with
sails, clipper bow and one funnel. She made her appearance in 1856.
Hitherto British and other seamen had been largely employed for crews,
but now only Germans, dressed in uniform, and disciplined after the
custom of a man-of-war, were allowed. The German Mercantile Marine was
beginning to exist by itself.
The best speed obtained with these ships was sixteen days, and in
1858 came the _Saxonia_ and _Austria_, which reduced the passage
eastward-bound to a little over twelve days, the firm’s fleet now
consisting of eight sailing ships and four steamers. Presently the
former were all sold, and a fortnightly service to New York was
instituted, and other steamships were added. At the outbreak of the
American Civil War this line was carrying the United States mails and
calling at Southampton, and, after leaving the English port, New York
was reached in ten days. By the early ’seventies the fleet already
numbered twenty-five steamships, and was also running to the Spanish
Main, Mexico and West Indies.
The White Star and the Hamburg-America were the first Atlantic lines
to adopt the twin-screw system for passenger ships. It was in 1887
that the latter ordered the two steel, twin-screw ships _Columbia_ and
_Auguste Victoria_. The former was built at Birkenhead by Lairds, but
the latter was constructed at Stettin, and this was the first time a
German yard had attempted a ship of such a size, for she measured over
500 feet long, and she was of 8430 tons burthen. These two vessels
were immediately followed by two others, similar in type, of which one
was built on the Clyde and one at Stettin. With their three funnels,
high speed, improved ventilation, commodious cabins, bathrooms, suites
of rooms and general high standard of comfort, this quartette made a
sensation. It was the introduction of the German floating palaces into
the Atlantic.
Reference to the previous two chapters in this volume will show that
the British Atlantic companies were meeting this competition, but if
you ask how was it that, notwithstanding the fact that the German
Empire had been proclaimed as recently as 1871, this new Mercantile
Marine had been able to build up such a trade in so few years, the
answer is this. The repeal of the British Navigation Laws in 1849
enabled the Prussian ships to have the opportunity which came at
the right moment. But, secondly, it was the enormous increase of
emigrant passengers anxious to leave the European continent and try
their fortunes in the New World. I have no wish to weary the reader
with statistics, but the following few figures will substantiate this
argument. They are derived from a Board of Trade analysis based on
information afforded by the United States Immigration Bureau, and are
therefore beyond dispute.
Bearing in mind that the first Hamburg-America ship sailed in 1847, we
find that whereas the average annual emigration from Germany to the
U.S.A. had been only 19,000 up to 1844, during the next ten years it
jumped to 95,000, dropped during the next decade to 49,000, but then
rose to 113,000 in the decennial period ending 1874, was 109,000 up
to the year 1884, then dropped to 28,000 by 1904, but rose to 34,000
in the decade ending 1914. But in addition to these figures must be
added others. By reason of her geographical position Germany was most
favourably placed for capturing the emigrant traffic from the rest of
the continent, and of this she made the best advantage. It was not
until the decade ending 1874 that the Russians, for instance, began
pouring out from their own country to North America, and gradually the
German ships carried most of these. How valuable such a traffic was
can be at once realised. Beginning with an average of 2000 Russian
emigrants to the United States, this figure in ten years had increased
to 10,000, then to 38,000 and, finally, just before the war averaged
199,000.
In 1894 the German Government erected what were known as control
stations at various places on the Russian frontier, ostensibly to
prevent the spread of cholera by Russian emigrants travelling through
Germany. The erection and management of these controls were vested in
the Hamburg-America and North German Lloyd Lines. But whatever was
their original purpose, these stations came to be used by the German
steamship companies for confining the increasing stream of emigrants
to their own lines, who made it as difficult as possible for persons
not travelling by those lines to get through the control stations. In
addition to this, the German Government so legislated as to make it
very awkward and more costly for emigrants to get to America in British
ships. Thus, Germany, by doing everything from intimidation and bluff
to legislation, did succeed in obtaining a most valuable emigrant
traffic, and so was able, quite apart from her own increasing exports,
to build up a thoroughly up-to-date and steadily improving Merchant
Navy.
It is not to be wondered at that now she had learnt to construct steel
steamships for herself she made a bold bid for Atlantic merchant ship
supremacy. By the year of the Paris Exhibition in 1900 this line had
fourteen twin-screw steamers to carry passengers across. The latest was
the celebrated _Deutschland_, which was to win the “blue riband” of the
Atlantic; for this record-smasher succeeded in lowering the voyage
between New York and Plymouth to five days, seven hours, thirty-eight
minutes, and on one trip averaged 23·51 knots. This four-funnelled ship
was of 16,502 tons and measured 686 feet long. She was certainly an
eye-pleasing vessel, for it was before the practice of building lofty
superstructures had become the fashion. Her biggest day’s run was 601
knots, and the sumptuousness of her passenger comfort made her a very
popular ship. In 1906 came the _Kaiserin Auguste Victoria_, 24,581
tons, 687 feet long, and able to carry 4000 passengers and crew. She
was at the time the biggest steamer in the world.
But before we mention the mammoth German liners we must see briefly
how the North German Lloyd grew up. Their first transatlantic steamer
was the _Bremen_, built by Caird of Greenock in 1858, but their
real progress commences with the year 1881, when the first German
“express” steamer entered the line. This was the 4510-ton _Elbe_, a
four-masted screw ship built on the Clyde, and during the next ten
years Glasgow built _Ems_ and seven other British-made vessels, whose
speed varied from sixteen to eighteen knots. They were able to carry
1200 passengers. But when we come to the ’nineties the passenger
trade was so good that the North German Lloyd could afford to scrap
its old-fashioned craft and build the twin-screw _Kaiser Wilhelm der
Grosse_. This was to become an historic ship.
She measured 14,349 gross tons, and appeared in 1897. The Germans
were jealous of the achievements which had been made by the Cunard
_Campania_ and _Lucania_, and by attaining a mean speed of 22·81 knots
on her trip from New York to Europe did outstrip the Cunarders’ fine
record; and thus for the first time the “blue riband” of the Atlantic
temporarily passed to Germany. She was “made in Germany”—at Stettin—and
this triumphant voyage did a great deal to encourage the German
Mercantile Marine and German shipbuilders. She had been constructed on
the understanding that if during the trial trip across the Atlantic she
did not come up to the requirements of the contract, the North German
Lloyd were to be allowed to reject her. Actually she surpassed the
builders’ undertaking.
In 1907, whilst coming across the Atlantic in October weather
eastward-bound, this handsome ship fractured her rudder; but instead
of taking her into Halifax, the nearest port, her captain held on for
Plymouth and thence to Bremerhaven, the ship having been manœuvred by
means of her twin screws. It was a fine achievement, but some ships
are born to be adventurous. At the beginning of the Great War the
_Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_ was in Germany. She was fitted out as a
raider, left Hamburg on August 4, 1914, evaded the Grand Fleet, passed
round the north of Iceland, and on August 7 sank a British trawler,
then proceeded down the Atlantic, sank a couple and molested two more
ships, and finally went into the Rio de Oro, a lonely anchorage in
Spanish territory in North-West Africa. But on August 26 arrived H.M.S.
_Highflyer_, and as the German refused to leave territorial waters,
the British cruiser opened fire and destroyed her. Thus, after nearly
twenty years’ service, this former Atlantic greyhound ended her days as
an armed merchant cruiser.
The North German Lloyd’s _Kaiser Wilhelm II_ was the next ship of this
line to cause a sensation. This was in 1903, and she was certainly a
triumph for the Stettin builders. Of 20,000 registered tons, she was a
little faster even than the _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, for she kept
up an average speed of 23·58 knots between New York and Plymouth in one
voyage. Very useful was this speed to become eleven years later, for
she was in the North Atlantic when war broke out, and got safely into
New York on August 6. The _George Washington_, of 26,000 gross register
tons, was launched as the biggest of all the ships in the German
Mercantile Marine, though, with the speed of eighteen and a half knots,
by no means the fastest. She was added to the N.D.L. in 1908, and was
able to carry just under 3000 passengers for her owners when the list
was full. A very useful and luxurious ship she turned out to be, but
on the day after the war began she arrived in New York, was interned,
and is now one of the ships in the American Mercantile Marine. The
_Berlin_, another N.D.L. steamer, passed into the owners’ hands in
1909. She was of 19,200 gross tons, and originally could do her
eighteen knots. In the autumn of 1914 she laid the big minefield off
the north coast of Ireland, on which H.M.S. _Audacious_ and other ships
foundered. _Berlin_ afterwards scurried north and interned herself in
Norway.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the Cunard Line._
STOKEHOLD OF AN OIL-FUEL CUNARDER.]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the Cunard Line._
STARTING PLATFORM
Of the engine-room in a Cunarder.]
Such, then, was the progress of these two main supports of the German
Mercantile Marine until the coming of the mammoth Atlantic liners.
The ships of the Hamburg-America and the North German Lloyd were
admittedly as good, and sometimes better than, their competitors, the
Cunard and White Star; and during the period immediately preceding the
war, competition was very keen not merely on the New York route,
but in the trade with Central America, South America, East Africa and
Australia. The German Mercantile Marine was everywhere, and cutting
rates in an alarming manner. Her sea-borne trade was increasing, but
the bulk of her shipping still remained, on the eve of war, in the ten
powerful companies; and her main strength was still in the Atlantic
trade of the two big lines we have just been considering.
The North Atlantic had long since earned the title of the cockpit
where the mercantile supremacy at sea was to be fought out. Germany’s
final bid was a great effort. For in the year 1912 was built the
23½-knot _Imperator_, a stupendous creature of 52,022 tons, with her
swimming-bath and super-luxury. In 1914 was put into service the
26·75-knot _Vaterland_, which was bigger still, for she measured 950
feet long, against _Imperator’s_ 905 feet, and her tonnage worked
out at 52,282. The former at the outbreak of war was lucky to be in
Germany, where she remained until after hostilities. She was handed
over to the Cunard Company, who changed her name to _Berengaria_. The
_Vaterland_ got into New York on the day war was declared between Great
Britain and Germany, and was interned. She was eventually used for
carrying American troops to Europe, and after the war she passed into
the American Mercantile Marine, who changed her name to _Leviathan_.
When she was seized from Germany there were no plans of her available.
The United States Shipping Board, on making inquiries from her German
builders as to the price of these plans, were asked the enormous sum
of $1,000,000. This was declined, and the colossal task of preparing
these plans from the ship herself was successfully undertaken. But you
may imagine what it means to run a ship of this size when it cost the
American Mercantile Marine $50,000 a month merely to keep her efficient
whilst laid up. Finally there was finished in Germany during 1922 the
third mammoth, of 56,000 tons. Originally intended to be called the
_Bismarck_, she was handed over to the White Star Line, who changed her
name to _Majestic_.
Before the war Germany’s Mercantile Marine, according to the Managing
Director of the Hamburg-America Line, consisted of 5,459,000 gross
tons. Of this amount approximately she lost owing to war operations
2,700,000 tons. By reason of the Treaty of Versailles she lost a
further 2,900,000 tons approximately, leaving her about 400,000
tons.[8] If we select the spring of 1922 we are neither too near the
ending of the war nor too far removed from it to notice the efforts
which are being made to revive a merchant fleet which so suddenly
vanished from its high position. The Hamburg-America Line in 1922 had
but forty-three vessels of 165,707 gross tons, and the North German
Lloyd only twenty-five ships of 127,098 gross tons. A mighty contrast
to the summer of 1914. But both these and other lines were going ahead
with their building, and it was unofficially estimated that the German
Merchant Fleet on May 31, 1922, consisted of 1,546,000 gross tons.
In accordance with the Peace Treaty all German merchant ships of any
importance were handed over to the Entente Powers. This, in part, was
as compensation for the loss of tonnage during the U-boat campaign.
But Germany recompensed her shipping companies for the merchant
vessels thus surrendered and gave them every encouragement to build
up once more the fleets which meant so much to her, financially
and politically. For the Shipping Redemption Agreement of 1921
indemnified these companies, provided labour for the shipyards, and
ensured co-operation of the industries inland. The money paid to the
companies was taken from the national funds, but its distribution
and the supervision of the building programme have been entrusted to
a Shipowners’ Trust Company. Thus Germany still realises all that a
Mercantile Marine means to her, and she has every intention of building
it up again during the coming years.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] That is, tonnage built during the war.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE AMERICAN MERCANTILE MARINE
Throughout the course of this story the reader will have observed many
references to the American Mercantile Marine. Let us now consider how
it began, developed, waned and again revived. We have seen how the
enterprise of the New England builders was to have a profound effect on
British shipping, but we desire now to regard the subject as a whole.
So long as a country, wherever situated, has a seaboard, it is very
evident that its civilised community will soon begin building craft of
some kind. The early colonists in America built a 30-ton vessel as far
back as 1607, and it is from this _Virginia_ that we must trace the
American Mercantile Marine. Seven years later a small ship was launched
at New Amsterdam, as, of course, New York was then called, and by the
second decade of the seventeenth century there were over 1000 ships in
colonial waters; for numbers of shipwrights had come over from England.
During the eighteenth century at Portland, Maine, and elsewhere were
built square-rigged ships, privateers, and the first schooners as well
as brigantines. This was quite apart from the shipping and timber sent
to England, and during the year 1769 the twelve colonies launched 389
ships, representing 20,000 tons.
In few countries of the world has the relation between war and
mercantile shipping been so accurately reflected, as we shall see as we
go on. The immediate result of the American revolution was to throttle
the Atlantic trade, and five of the first eleven Acts of Congress were
laws to encourage American shipping. In 1789 the State gave special
privileges to shippers engaged in the East Indian and China trades.
Many of these shippers and owners were located in Massachusetts, and
made fine profits, as, for instance, the _Mount Vernon_ of Salem, which
in 1799 made a profit of $100,000 in a single round trip to China; and
one ship made 700 per cent. on a cargo of pepper from Sumatra.
The registered American tonnage in the foreign trade grew from 123,893
tons in 1789 to 667,107 tons in 1800; for during the wars growing
out of the French Revolution the American Mercantile Marine actually
became the principal carriers of Europe, as at one time the Dutch and
the English had been. Thus for a second time the marine showed how
sensitive it was to the effect of war. But the war of 1812 caused
severe losses to American merchant ships, yet, on the other hand,
American privateers played havoc with English shipping. The effect,
even in those days of comparatively few ships, is at once seen by
looking at the port of Liverpool, the natural haven for American ships
arriving in Europe; for whereas in 1810, 6729 ships entered that port,
only 4599 came in during the year 1812. On the other hand, as soon as
peace returned these figures jumped up, and from 1815 to 1860 shipping
went ahead quickly.
For the United States were fast developing their industries, opening
up trade, and therefore had every need of a Mercantile Marine.
The legislation of Congress in 1828 opened up American ports to
cargo-carrying British ships from any country where American vessels
were on a similar footing to British ships, and two years later the
West Indies were opened to American shipping. In 1849 Great Britain
adopted the Free Trade policy, and full reciprocity was established
between British and American merchant vessels. The history of the
clipper ships and the competition between Great Britain and the United
States for the ocean-carrying trade has already been related in this
volume. It is only necessary once more to emphasise that war had yet
again a good deal to do with the future of the American Mercantile
Marine, for the Civil War of 1861 took away any chance which remained
to American ships of continuing as the great sea-carriers. The American
mind had to concentrate on fighting. Meanwhile, much of the tonnage
had passed under other flags, while in Great Britain the accessibility
of coal deposits, the cheapness of labour, the successful introduction
of iron for shipbuilding, the great advances in ship construction, and
especially the wonderful progress of the steamship, had been able to
give back to Great Britain her supremacy as a Mercantile Marine. And
when the Civil War was over, America was too interested internally to
pay a maximum amount of attention to ocean trading.
For the riches of the country were only beginning to be developed.
Mines and manufactures, railroads and so on were now needing all the
available capital. The New England shipyards, which for many years
had been so valuable owing to the ample supplies of timber ready to
hand, became unwanted in proportion as the Clyde, with its adjacent
coalfields, was becoming more important for building ships of iron and
then steel. It would be untrue to say that America ignored the building
of iron ships, and in the early ’seventies she was interested in a
mild way. The ’eighties passed without much enthusiasm for the subject,
and then in 1894 and following year the Cramp shipyard launched the
two fine transatlantic liners _St. Louis_ and _St. Paul_, both being
constructed of steel. There were many other steel ships built, and
orders were received from abroad, but, broadly speaking, and in strict
reference to merchant ships and not warships, America was not even now
a shipbuilding country.
Those splendid schooners with which the port of Gloucester is for ever
associated, and those other sailing craft along the American coast do
not alter the statement, nor do the vessels on the American lakes and
rivers. We are thinking of ocean-going ships, which are the essential
feature of any Mercantile Marine. The trade between the Atlantic and
Pacific ports still remained for the old full-rigged clippers, because
there were not enough cargoes east-bound to make it worth while for
the steamship. And so America went on, content to allow her Merchant
Service to be comparatively small and unprogressive.
But once again it required a war to call the national mind to consider
what a Mercantile Marine means to a country. The Spanish war of 1898
did this to the extent that there was aroused a strong support for
the Panama Canal project. The Act permitting this dates from 1892,
and it is really from this year that the new phase begins, though
only gradually. If you make direct and shorter roads on land leading
to important trading centres, you obviously at once attract trade. If
in the same manner you shorten communications by sea, it will have a
similar effect. Quite apart from its warlike strategic value, which is
outside our subject, the theory of the Panama Canal was based on the
fact that it would reduce the sea route from New York to San Francisco
by most of 8000 miles, and to Sydney and Yokohama by about 4000
miles. The 1892 Act also authorised admission to American registry of
foreign-built vessels not more than five years old.
Then again came another war, the Great War, which began on August 4,
1914, the year in which the canal was opened. Too late America had
begun to learn the value of a Mercantile Marine, and now she foresaw
that there would be an inadequate supply of shipping to carry her trade
across the ocean. Immediately she tried to make up for this by passing
a law a fortnight after the outbreak of war removing the age limit in
the Act of 1892. And now it becomes necessary to look into the matter
somewhat closely, otherwise what followed is not intelligible.
When the European War broke out, America, having regard to her
population, wealth, overseas trade and length of littoral, was in a
curious position. The following figures are for June 1914, and are
eloquent. In that month, of all the world’s _sea-going_ steel and iron
steam tonnage the British Empire owned 47·7, Germany 12, Scandinavia
8·7, France 4·5, the United States 4·3 and Japan 3·9 per cent. As the
war went on America realised at last that 71 per cent. of the world’s
steamships were in the hands of belligerents, and therefore the means
of transport for American exports and imports—in other words, the
exchange of wealth—had been taken away. Even farmers and cotton-growers
who had never seen the sea in their lives began to take an interest in
the subject when they suffered losses. It took the Great War to wake
up the great American nation, as it had taken the American clippers to
make our sailing shipowners become active.
Shipbuilding in America suddenly began to revive, for from the end
of 1915 ships were required by Britain, France and Norway. Mines and
submarines had caused losses to the two first, while the third required
more ships than ever for the profitable trade she was doing with
Great Britain and France. Moreover, the American Mercantile Marine
needed ships for herself; and the result was that in 1915 there was a
net increase of nearly 500,000 tons added to its commercial service,
including shipping which had been transferred to it. The position in
the carrying trade outside America was this. A large number of ships
were interned in various ports, some thousands of tons had been sunk by
the German mines and submarines, and yet the Allies were now requiring
more for maintaining food for nations and supplies for the armies in
the field. In addition to this, many ships had been taken from the
Merchant Service for purely naval purposes and other objects, such as
supply-vessels to the Fleet. And the unrestricted submarine campaign
which Germany began in April 1917 was to make matters considerably
worse; for in April of that year 545,282 tons of British merchant
shipping alone were lost by enemy action.
It was on September 7, 1916, that Congress passed a law creating the
United States Shipping Board, the original aim of which was to develop
more effectively the American Mercantile Marine. A very few months
later, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany,
and on May 4 the first American warships to reach Europe, consisting
of six destroyers, steamed into Queenstown harbour. It is a day firmly
fixed in my own memory, as the vessel I was then commanding was the
first to go alongside them, north of Daunt’s Rock lightship. Now with
America a participant in the war, and about to send armies to Europe
together with necessary military supplies, the need for American
merchant tonnage became positively acute. In the whole of the United
States there were not more than sixty-one shipyards, of which only
thirty-seven were building steel craft.
But America realised that ships must be built at once, regardless of
cost, both very quickly and in large numbers. Thus in a strange and
romantic manner there came unexpectedly a revival of the wooden ship.
An American writer has pointed out that of the entire transportation of
American troops about 48¼ per cent. were carried in British ships, and
43 per cent. in American Navy transports. But, with a fine patriotic
effort, shipbuilding of all kinds now went ahead, and soon there were
341 shipyards building sea-going craft. Actually 1284 launching ways
were now occupied. It was a remarkable lesson which war had taught
in respect of the Mercantile Marine. There is no room to go into
details, but it is sufficient to call attention to this exceptional
effort, which showed what could be done. Fabricated ships, that is,
vessels constructed by assembling the standardised plates made in the
engineering shops, rendered possible only through the existence of
numerous steel rolling mills, began to take the water; and if some of
these craft were not always well built, we must remember that they were
a temporary measure, and not intended to last.
The total construction of ships in the United States during the
years 1910-1916 had averaged 450,000 tons a year. In 1917 it was
nearly 1,000,000, in 1918 it was 3,223,506 tons, but in 1919 it was
6,558,823 tons, up to the end of the year in each case. These figures
are given for the purpose of showing what can be done in a country
which makes up its mind to have a commercial marine. America had been
a long time learning its lesson, but there was no question that she
had learned. Therefore it is not to be expected that she will let
this hardly-acquired realisation be forgotten. Indeed, the evidence
is strongly the other way. On June 5, 1920, was approved the Merchant
Marine Act for the promoting and maintaining an American Merchant
Marine. It is sufficient evidence merely to read the declaration of
policy as stated by Congress: “That it is necessary for the national
defence and for the proper growth of its foreign and domestic
commerce that the United States shall have a merchant marine of the
best-equipped and most suitable types of vessels sufficient to carry
the greater portion of its commerce and serve as a naval or military
auxiliary in time of war or national emergency, ultimately to be owned
and operated privately by citizens of the United States; and it is
hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to do whatever
may be necessary to develop and encourage the maintenance of such a
merchant marine.”
With the failure of any immediate benefits of this policy it is not
necessary here to deal. But of all the many results of the Great War,
few historically are more interesting than this revival. Competition
between British and American shipping is inevitable, but it is merely
a repetition of what happened in the clipper era; and we have seen
that in the long run this spirit of emulation has always benefited
the Merchant Service. Comparing the figures given above for June
1914, let us place alongside them those for June 1921, which are as
instructive as the first. For now we find in the percentage of the
world’s total sea-going steel and iron steam tonnage that the British
Empire owns 39·3, the United States 22·7, France and Japan each 5·6,
but Scandinavia 7·7. Thus to have leapt from 4·3 to 22·7 in so short a
space of time, and to have become second only to the British Empire, is
a remarkable achievement.
The future remains to be seen. But we have noticed that the absence of
competition caused the East Indian portion—and that was the greater
part—of the British Mercantile Marine to get into a rut. It was only
the opening up to all of the East, the free and unfettered rivalry
there and in the Atlantic, which brought about progress and improved
conditions both for the trader and the passenger. In the face of the
lessons of history, is it not better to welcome competition rather
than to endeavour to hinder, by a series of laws which may do good,
but may also cause international friction, more dreadful wars, and do
little for the advancement of civilisation and the attainment of noble
aims? The practical value of history is that we are able to see at a
glance the mistakes of our forefathers. If it is not that, it is a mere
academic study. The world now realises that an adequate merchant fleet
is as necessary as an adequate fighting Navy. But it has required to
be confronted with big events before it could thoroughly grasp that
essential fact.
CHAPTER XIX
THE MINOR MERCANTILE MARINES
One important result of the war was to readjust the respective
positions of the nations of the world in regard to their merchant
fleets. Considering only steel and iron steam tonnage, the nations
were in the following order of precedence immediately prior to the
war: British Empire, Germany, Scandinavia, France, the United States;
Japan, Holland, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Spain, Greece. But to-day the
following is the order: British Empire, United States, and then there
is an immense drop to Scandinavia, France, Japan, Italy, Holland,
Spain, Germany and Greece about equal, and no Austro-Hungarian merchant
ships.
Whilst Scandinavia still occupies the third place, she represents
only 7·7 of the world’s steam tonnage as against the United States’
22·7 and the British Empire’s 39·3. Outside the belligerents the
Scandinavians were the most important merchant fleet throughout the
period of hostilities, and Norway was more important than Sweden.
From the earliest times in European history the sea-spirit has been
a real influence in Scandinavia, and some of the finest sailormen in
the world have come from there. It is that spirit which has built up
the Scandinavian merchant fleets, not merely through the sailing-ship
days, but after. To them were sold many of Britain’s clippers and other
vessels as steam gradually became dominant; and even now they purchase
obsolete British steamships, give them another name and put them into
service again. The Allan liner _Virginian_, the first Atlantic turbine
steamer, for instance, is now running in the Swedish-American Line.
The war found the Scandinavians with a comparatively large merchant
fleet, not merely of steam vessels, but of sailing craft. Only those
who were in the North Sea at that time could realise this fact, and
as the years went on it became still more emphasised. For they were
able to sell their agricultural produce to Germany for high prices,
and they sold, also at a high rate, large supplies of food and of
timber to Great Britain. The result was that the enormous demand for
merchant ships brought great wealth to these Northmen. They placed a
large number of orders with British shipbuilding firms prior to peace,
and in one area alone these orders amounted to 450,000 tons. But then
came the slump, ships were not wanted, because trade became bad, many
shipowners were soon in financial straits and merchant captains found
themselves without employment. The result is, that notwithstanding the
boom, they owned in June 1921 only 7·7 as against 8·7 in June 1914 of
the world’s sea-going steam tonnage. On the other hand, they have shown
considerable enterprise in evolving the ocean-going motor ship. But
whereas the Baltic meant so much to their shipping, the revolutionary
upheavals in Russia and Germany have thoroughly disorganised that most
important section of their trade. To take one instance alone, before
the war, and even during those years, Sweden used to export in small
steamships large quantities of iron ore to Germany, but now these
exports have considerably diminished. Nevertheless, the possession of
these Scandinavian merchant fleets, consisting as they do principally
of small rather than big ships, is a strong factor to be considered in
the future.
To-day the French Mercantile Marine is of the same strength as Japan,
owing to the last-mentioned country having gone ahead rather than the
former having gone astern. The acquisition of a number of ex-German
liners after the Armistice was something of a windfall, though it
was a long time before some of the big craft were requisitioned.
The Messageries Maritimes, for example, took over from the French
Government the _Lucie Woermann_ (4836 tons) and several bigger ships.
But as an influence in the shipping world, France is very different
from what she was during the time of Louis XIV and after. The naval
architects and shipbuilders in France during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries were in many cases as good, and frequently better
than, those of England or Holland or Spain. But this supremacy had long
since left them by the time the steamship became prevalent.
During the war the French Mercantile Marine was used entirely for the
prosecution of the one great cause, but France lost during that period
1,129,000 out of 2,556,000 tons of merchant shipping with which she
commenced hostilities. This has been more serious for France, because
whilst during hostilities the shipyards of Great Britain, the United
States and Japan were able to carry on building, the French yards were
almost exclusively engaged in manufacturing for their armies. In fact,
they were unable to launch more than 143,000 tons throughout the war,
though afterwards about a hundred ships were ordered in Great Britain,
representing nearly 500,000 tons.
The French Mercantile Marine to-day consists of between 3,000,000
and 4,000,000 tons. Of this the fine big Atlantic liners running
to New York make up a fair proportion, especially when we think of
the 34,568-ton _Paris_, one of the largest liners afloat, and a
singularly impressive ship to behold. As a result of the war Germany
had to hand over to the Allies 521 ships, of nearly 3,000,000 tons
displacement; and of these France was allotted 116, amounting to about
500,000 tons. But the greater part of her merchant fleet is based on
the Mediterranean, running from Marseilles to the Black Sea, and her
possessions in Asia and the Pacific, West Africa, and to North and
South America. Most of her exports go to her colonies; and the short
voyages across the Mediterranean to Algeria and Morocco, transporting
corn, wine, sheep and vegetables, will ever be a valuable means of
employing small tonnage ships. But it has needed a war to teach France
that the whole of her shipbuilding and marine transportation required
overhauling and revising. Her shipping industry was based rather on the
policy of making profits out of other industries than of becoming a
means of creating new trade routes and fresh avenues to wealth. It is
only now that she is realising the riches of her colonies which merely
wait to be developed fully. To France, curiously enough, belonged the
honour of owning the largest and finest sailing ship in the world. This
was the _La France_. Fitted with auxiliary motors in the early days
of the combustion engine, these were afterwards removed. She sailed
out to the Pacific in 1922, but had the misfortune to pile up on a New
Caledonian reef close to her destination and became a total wreck. Thus
perished the last link France had with its former race of brilliant
designers of sailing ships.
In the rise of nations few phenomena are more striking than the way
the Japanese merchant fleet has leapt into prominence in so few years.
Even before the war she possessed only 3·9 of the world’s steam steel
tonnage, and was the sixth power in the world as a sea-carrier; to-day
she is actually bracketed fourth with France, and owning 5·6 of the
percentage of tonnage. The Japanese are essentially copyists, and
practically everything they know of shipbuilding or shipping in the
modern sense has been derived from Great Britain. The war came as a
grand opportunity to them, and as soon as the Germans vanished from
the Eastern trades, the Japanese stepped in and took what they wanted
at a time when our traders were busy with other matters. Thanks to the
heavy subsidies granted by their Government, they have put up a keen
competition, including the Indian coasting trade. Both geographically
and economically Japan is well situated so as to expand her merchant
fleet throughout the Orient and the Pacific, and all the evidence
points to her intention to take every advantage of her opportunities.
According to the most recent figures, the Japanese merchant fleet
contained nearly 800 steamships of over 1000 tons, representing nearer
3,000,000 than 2,000,000 tons. The purchase of a large number of
second-hand ships from other countries at a time when, owing to the
slump, they could be bought for less than half their cost in Japan, is
one of the latest instances of her enterprise. The Italian proportion
of ownership in steamships has increased a point as a result of the
war and after, and the addition in 1921 of the big _Giulio Cesare_ was
a considerable acquisition to such a small marine. Built in England,
this 22,500-ton (gross) steamer was the largest vessel the Wallsend
yard had launched since they constructed the _Mauretania_. She can do
her nineteen knots and more, and being intended for the Genoa-Buenos
Ayres route, was fitted with ample luxury to tempt the South Americans.
But there is also a big emigrant trade from this port westward, and
more than half the accommodation in the ship is intended for them. The
outcome of the war brought Trieste, Austria’s only port, into the hands
of Italy, and this may have an important effect on Italian shipping in
the future. It used to be to Austria what Fiume was to Hungary, and
both States used to give large subsidies to their Mercantile Marines
and encourage transport to and from these ports. Just before the war
the Austro-Hungarian merchant ships represented only slightly over 1
per cent. of all the world’s sea-going steel steamers, but now this
amount has dropped to nothing. Fiume was the port whence emigrants by
the thousand poured from their Slav, Teuton and Magyar homes on board
the liners bound for the United States. It was Hungary’s only port,
and then the World War put an end to its glory and made it a source of
grave international anxiety.
But its close connection with the Mercantile Marine prosperity can be
seen at once. For one steamship line alone used to take from there
30,000 emigrants annually. They used to run three steamships a month
during the winters when bad harvests had caused the people to leave
their homes for the New World, and each of these ships was carrying
most of 2000. Then, having made $500 in America, they would for the
most part return, and thus there was still further traffic for the
shipping. The Austrian Lloyd Company owned about eighty steamships,
though chiefly of small tonnage, but some were built in Trieste of
about 4000 tons. With one steamship company the Hungarian Government
actually entered into a contract, to last ten years, by which the
former were to be guaranteed 30,000 emigrants a year; and a bonus of a
hundred francs was to be paid for every passenger short of that number.
It cannot be too much emphasised that the emigrant traffic has been one
of the foundations of some steamship companies.
During the war the direct services from Scandinavia to America were
strengthened; but the French emigrant traffic has never been great.
Before the war the Italian steamship lines were largely under German
influence. No emigrants could be carried to or from Italy except in a
licensed ship; and a vessel more than three years old, not previously
employed in the Italian service, could not receive a licence unless her
speed was at least eighteen knots. But from the European continent by
far the greatest emigrant traffic went from Bremen and Rotterdam in the
two big German lines.
The present position of Holland and Spain, almost at the bottom of the
list, shows pathetically that a country which in its day has been the
greatest sea-carrier, which owned and built the finest ships in the
world, may in a century or more be pushed out of the struggle unless
her fighting fleet is able to secure free passage for the merchant
vessels. Holland, at least, owns a small fleet of first-class liners,
principally for the North American trade and to the Dutch East Indies.
With regard to the former, Rotterdam has been to them a useful port
for attracting a good many emigrants every year. Prior to the war the
German lines were too wise to compete against the Dutch, preferring not
to separate forces in concentrating against the Cunard and White Star
Lines. Most Dutch steamship lines enjoy a measure of support from the
Dutch railways, but in the past there was also a good deal of support
from Germany.
[Illustration:
[_Photo, Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd._
A FAST-DISAPPEARING SHIP TYPE.
Steam and motors have almost banished the full-rigged ship from the
Mercantile Marine, but a very few still survive.]
The future of Mercantile Marines is the future of trade itself; for
shipping not merely takes goods to market, but actually creates those
markets in localities hitherto undeveloped. The sailing ship as an
ocean-carrier is certainly fast disappearing, and everything now is
reckoned on a basis of economy, but with strict regard to speed and
efficiency. The need for shipping, apart from temporary slumps in the
cycle of trade through prosperity to depression, must increase as the
resources of the world become greater. If the tramp steamer forces her
way up a shallow river and finds an abundance of a certain commodity
which by some sudden turn in social life is much in demand in London
or New York, this new trade will go on and on until a town is built on
the banks, the river is dredged, and eventually liners call there not
for cargoes, but to bring passengers. The town needs its regular mail
service, the inhabitants require costly manufactured goods from England
or America; and so, in the end, it grows to be a colony with its own
special exports and imports. The arrival of every ship increases the
trade, agents from commercial corporations land and start a new vein of
development. Finally, after a couple of centuries, perhaps, the colony
decides to have its own merchant fleet, and after it has got thoroughly
used to this, and had some risk of war, it realises that its
Merchant Marine must be protected by a fighting Navy. To-day Australia
has its own liners, and Navy, and yet it was only in 1788 that the
first thousand settlers landed there. In the exchange of wealth the sea
is, so to speak, the counter across which the deal is done. You may
live inland and forget all about the sea; you may hate it or you may
fear it; but it is there all the time, and it means everything to any
ambitious community. It is by means of the merchant ship that the sea
is, partially at least, controlled for the sake of land development and
the convenience of communities.
CHAPTER XX
THE FUTURE OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE
If the attention of the reader has been thus far secured, he will
have appreciated the fact that to any nation owning a seaboard the
possession of a Mercantile Marine is as important as having a fighting
Navy. We have seen that Great Britain, the United States, France,
Germany, Japan—not to mention the rest—all realise more than ever the
prime importance of an efficient and adequate merchant fleet. You find
this in the official statements as well as in the remarks by their
shipping experts. As we said at the beginning of this volume, it has
taken a great war to cause this right thinking, but you may be assured
that from now onwards the merchant fleets are coming into their own,
and the service is going to be regarded before long with some of the
old respect that was ascribed to it in the palmiest days of the sailing
ship.
It is sea-borne trade which makes a Mercantile Marine. It is the great
coalfields conveniently near big harbours that have helped to build up
the modern British marine after her shipping was temporarily eclipsed
by the American. The development of the world consequent on the coming
of the industrial age, the great increase of overseas trade therefrom
resulting, caused a loud and universal call for cheap maritime
carriage. The steamer satisfied that call, for the reason that she was
built economically near to the coalfields, and economically propelled
because she had cheap coal. She could therefore afford to carry goods
cheaply. Then, as we have also seen, this tramp is the forerunner of
the liner, and so the story goes on like a stone gathering momentum as
it comes down the mountain.
So it all depends on cheap fuel quite as much as on cheap labour. The
Scandinavians have had the latter for years, but it never enabled
them to build up such a merchant fleet as one might have expected.
The world’s greatest shipping centre to-day is the Port of London,
notwithstanding the great set-back it received during the war, when the
presence of German submarines in the English Channel diverted much of
its ancient trade to western ports. Had it not been for the possession
of an enormous merchant fleet, consisting of a large proportion
of small and moderate-sized steamers, the Allied cause would most
certainly have been lost, irrespective of the Army in the field or the
Navy at sea. The British and German blockades, though exerted in the
one case by big ships and in the latter by submarines, had the same
effect: the paralysing of the merchant fleet. Take the blockade away
and the war could have gone on as long as a couple of men were alive.
The pivot of the whole thing is therefore the merchant ship, and she in
turn depends on her fuel.
The fuel of the future will be oil, and you will find only a minority
of experts to deny this. Whether aircraft will ever become the
principal passenger-carriers over the world is possible, but remote.
For the carriage of goods the dependence will remain on merchant
shipping, and one of the incentives to the use of oil-fuel will be
brought about by increased competition. Oil is the more economical
fuel, for the reason that, other things being equal, one ton of
oil-fuel as now used in Diesel engines drives a vessel three times as
far as one ton of coal burnt under the boilers of a steamship. And yet
oil is twice as efficient as coal when the ship has water-tube boilers
and geared turbines. This is the statement of Sir Westcott Abell, the
Chief Ship Surveyor of Lloyd’s Register. The biggest liners have now
been converted into oil-burning, and it is conceivable that before long
we may have Diesel-engined Atlantic leviathans instead of steamers.
The absence of boilers will mean more room for passengers and cargo,
therefore increased earning capacity.
Whether we think of oil as used for Diesel or for steam engines, it
certainly looks as if the future Mercantile Marines of the world will
be in the main oil-driven. In that case the outlook for the British
Mercantile Marine, which has been based on cheap coal, may cause some
anxiety. The possession of ample oil-wells in other parts of the world
may, and probably will, get over the difficulty; but it is one thing
to have coalfields at home, and quite another consideration to fetch
oil from the other end of the earth. Moreover the commercial fight
for oil-areas may conceivably lead to international strife, and the
prolongation of the war might depend on how long the supplies of oil
could be maintained for the shipping. In any forecast of the world’s
Mercantile Marines due regard must therefore be paid to the use and
supply of oil.
The introduction of oil-fuel into the modern Atlantic ships has done
away with the old, laborious work of stoking, and necessitated from
the fireman a higher skill, more technical knowledge and keener
concentration; and he has to be on the move continually in order to
see that the burners are in good order and the flame is continuous.
During bad weather, or fogs, fires can be extinguished, and thus
economy gained. More bunker-fuel is being consumed on the ocean at
the present than ever, and although during the last twenty years a
complete revolution has been made in the engine-room by the use of
turbines and geared turbines, it is only with the introduction of
oil-fuel that the stokehold has become more progressive. In many cases
ex-naval men are now employed in the British oil-fuel liners. Their
experience of years in oil-fuel ships well fits them for this skilled
“stoking” in the modern merchantmen. And here may be the beginning of
another improvement. It is well known that the crew’s accommodation in
most men-of-war is superior to that in most merchantmen, especially
in regard to cleanliness. During the war it was surprising to naval
officers commanding armed merchant cruisers that such conditions were
allowed in liners which would never be tolerated in fighting ships.
One British admiral, in particular, was so impressed as to express
his opinions afterwards in print. Now, if the introduction of highly
skilled ratings from the Navy continues, it may be taken as certain
that the standard of life in the crew’s quarters will become higher and
thus a high-grade type of man will be attracted. There is going to be
a general levelling up in the Mercantile Marines of the world, so long
as there is peace assured. The world is wearied of war, and asks only
to be allowed to develop its resources in peace. Every one nowadays is
interested in commerce, and the time will come when the practice which
existed in the East India Company’s ships will be reverted to. Only
the sons of the best families will be thought to be good enough for
the national merchant ships: only the best sons will offer themselves
for the honour of controlling the ships which maintain the country’s
life-giving trade. In the time of the Elizabethans, before the East
India Company; in the Spanish and Portuguese and Venetian trade
supremacies, the pick of the nation were engaged in overseas commerce;
and in the twentieth century, when so much technical knowledge, so
much responsible capability are required of a man, none but the best
types of officers and men should be accepted or offered. Permanent
employment, good pay, pride in ship and service, high standard of
accommodation, and the most careful selection of candidates will go a
long way towards bringing about this desired end.
In the olden days the sailor was a very gallant fellow, whose job it
was to go aloft and lay out along a yard and handsail in the foulest
weather. At sea he was heroic; on shore he was often a drunken
reprobate. Things have altered. The modern shipman is just as gallant,
as we know from his exploits afloat during the war. But he is better
educated, uses his head more and his fists less. He reads and thinks
and reasons for himself, and if he knows nothing of the old seafaring,
he is highly skilled in the working of the hundreds of wonderful
appliances which are essential to the modern merchant ship. To him the
shore is not always symbolical of debauch. He is better treated than
his ancestors, and his undoubted rights have begun to be respected.
The result is that there is a general improvement going on through the
Mercantile Marine not merely in regard to the ships themselves, but in
the personnel.
The romance of the sailing-ship days has to be merged to-day in the
bigger romance of sea-borne trade. It is ridiculous to say, as one
lecturer recently stated, that the Mercantile Marine has no fine
traditions like the Navy, and therefore there is no enthusing force at
the back of it. To make such a statement—and I regret to say that it
was uttered by a distinguished merchant ship captain—is to be ignorant
of sea history. During the recent war, during all the previous wars,
through the ages of peace, back and back as far as we have any records,
you will find the marine merchantman doing fine things, piling up the
finest traditions. If that is not so, the whole purpose of this volume
has been missed. I have endeavoured to show what the Mercantile Marine
has done for the world throughout time in all kinds of ships. Sailors
are a conservative race, and there is at heart very little difference
between the best of each century. To them we all owe more than we can
ever repay or even realise.
Whether the average merchant ship of the future is to be the
cruiser-stern vessel with oil-fuel and geared turbines, or with
Diesel engines, matters less than the spirit which animates the
officers and men. In the British Mercantile Marine the officers are
drawn from many sources, but the chief training establishments are
in the _Worcester_, lying in the Thames, the _Conway_, lying in the
Mersey, and in the Nautical College, Pangbourne. It is to these three
institutions especially that we look for the future mercantile officer,
on whom great responsibilities rest for the upholding and carrying on
of the magnificent heritage of tradition. In the United States this
preparation for the sea is being carried out with that thoroughness
which was shown during the war for making sailors out of raw landsmen.
The recruiting for the American Mercantile Marine, according to the
latest official report to hand, already consisted of a personnel
which was 68 per cent. American. Its Sea Training Bureau has training
stations and training ships, and in the first three years turned out
between 30,000 and 40,000 unlicensed ratings. In addition, there are
the Navigation and Engineering Schools and advanced courses for men
already holding licences. Such subjects as the operation, repair,
adjustment and general upkeep of marine turbines, and matters dealing
with electricity and oil, are included in the last-mentioned curricula.
The result was that in four years licences were granted to over 10,000
graduates as masters, first, second and third mates, chief engineers,
first, second and third assistant engineers. And by means of a Sea
Service Bureau maintained at various Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coast
ports, during one year over 100,000 officers and men were placed in
United States ships.
Thus, with glorious traditions behind them, and an equally glorious
future in front, the Mercantile Marines of the nations of the maritime
world have every reason to be proud of their respective services.
Competition there assuredly will be, not merely between British and
American, but, presently, German merchant fleets. That is all for
the good of the services concerned and for the world in general. The
lesson from past history is that maritime legislation in the long run
is better omitted except where it is necessary as a reply to that
of another country setting up unfair competition. The real freedom
of the seas is to allow the merchant ship to pursue her way freely,
unhampered; and to find her trade where she can, and be allowed to
develop that trade as it has been in the past by Venetian, Spaniard,
Dutch, Briton, American and others. To interfere with this system
is to court trouble which in the long run fails to benefit the very
organisation it was intended to protect. Navigation laws are all very
well in intention; but far better still is it to allow free trading
over the seas, free flow of emigrants and commerce, fair opportunities
for all. The best must win in the last instance, but why not let each
marine go about its own business as each trading concern ashore is
allowed to carry on its own affairs? The merchant fleets mean too much
to be controlled by the State in any country, except under exceptional
circumstances and with the most weighty excuse. That is one of the
lessons in the history of our subject, and we may leave it at that.
APPENDIX
SAILS OF THE _ESSEX_ EAST INDIAMAN
The following is a list of the sails which the _Essex_ could set, and
it is worth placing on record now that the sailing ship is so rapidly
becoming a rarity. These details have been taken from a contemporary
manuscript which has been kindly sent me by Colonel E. B. Urmston,
C.B., whose great-grandfather served in East Indiamen from the time
when he joined as a midshipman in 1763, and afterwards commanded
several of these ships between 1783 and 1803. In 1795 he brought home,
as Commodore, a fleet of thirty East Indiamen without a convoy of any
of H.M. ships, and later in the same year was Commodore of the East
Indiamen fleet which accompanied Sir Ralph Abercrombie’s expedition
to the West Indies. His eldest son, Sir James Urmston, joined the
company’s service as a “writer” in 1798, and became President of the
company’s factory and affairs in China.
This memorandum, already turning yellow with age, was made in 1816,
at the time Lady Urmston came home in the _Essex_, and with the aid
of existing pictures of East Indiamen it would not be impossible to
reconstruct a model on fairly accurate lines. It will be seen that
she was able to set twenty-seven sails on her foremast, twenty-one on
her mainmast, and seventeen on her mizzen: total sixty-five. It is
interesting as showing that at least one of these Indiamen was a real
sail-carrier. She was commanded by Captain Nisbett.
ON THE FOREMAST 26. ON THE MAINMAST 21. ON THE MIZZENMAST 17.
Fore course Main course Square cross jackyard
” topsail ” topsail Mizzen topsail
” t’gallant sail ” t’gallant sail ” t’gallant sail
” royal ” royal ” royal
” skysail ” skysail ” skysail
” moon-raker ” moon-raker ” moon-raker
” cloud-scraper ” cloud-scraper
” star-gazer ” star-gazer
” storm staysail ” staysail Driver
” topmast staysail ” topmast staysail Ring-tail
Jib ” middle ” Watersail
Inner jib ” t’gallant ” Gaff topsail
Flying ” ” royal ” Upper ”
Outer ” ” upper ” Mizzen staysail
Cutter’s topmast jib ” topmast staysail
Upper ” ” t’gallant ”
_On the bowsprit_:
Sprit sail Mizzen royal staysail
Sprit topsail ” topmast stuns’l
” outer topsail ” t’gallants’l
_Studding sails_:
Common lower studding sail Lower studding sail
Outer lower studding sail Common topmast studding sail
Common topmast studding sail Outer topmast studding sail
Outer topmast studding sail Common t’gallant studding sail
Common t’gallant studding sail Outer t’gallant studding sail
Outer t’gallant studding sail Royal t’gallant studding sail
Royal t’gallant studding sail Upper t’gallant studding sail
INDEX
Aaron Manby, 183
Abell, Sir Westcott, 240
Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, 246
Ability of an East Indiaman navigator, 142
_Acadia_, 178
Acre, 15
_Active_, 145
_Admiral Watson_, 94
Adriatic, The, 9
_Agincourt_, 148
_Ajax_, 92
_Albert Webb_, 118
_Alfred_, 98, 99, 100, 148
Allan Line, 197, 230
_Alnwick Castle_, 147
American clippers, 151
American Line, 183, 195
American Mercantile Marine, 152, 220, 244
American packets, 123
American trade, 104, 151
American War, 117
_Anglesey_, 147, 148
Anglo-Dutch wars, 66
_Ann McKim_, 150
_Aquila_, 25
_Aquitania_, 170, 173, 199, 200, 201
_Arabic_, 196
_Archimedes_, 184, 185
_Arctic_, 124
_Ariel_, 161, 162, 164
_Arizona_, 192
“Art of Seafighting, The,” 95
_Astell_, 112
_Aventurier_, 100, 101
_Audacious_, H.M.S., 216
_Auguste Victoria_, 211
_Austral_, 192
Australian Black Ball Line, 157
Australian gold discovery, 156
Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Co., 187
_Austria_, 211
Austrian Lloyd Company, 235
Baden-Powell, Sir Robert, 142
Baines, James, 135, 157
Balearic Isles, 5
Ballasting, 26
_Baltic_, 188
Barcelona ordinance, 22
_Barham_, 148
Beatty, Earl, 2
_Belle-Poule_, 100
_Bellone_, 112
Benbow, Admiral, 88
_Berceau_, 100
_Berengaria_, 170, 199, 202, 203, 217
_Berlin_, 216
Berthing a big liner, 198
Big Ship Masters, 208
_Bismarck_, 202, 218
Black Ball Line, 117, 123
“Black Book of the Admiralty,” 31
Black Sea, 16
Blackwall, 77, 80, 82, 92, 103, 115, 117, 134, 136, 146, 148, 172,
182, 188
_Blenheim_, 147
Blohm & Voss, 202
_Boddam_, 97
_Bombay Castle_, 93, 98, 99
Bombay Insurance Society, 102
_Bona Confidentia_, 58
_Bona Esperanza_, 58
_Borussia_, 210
Boulton & Watt, 170, 173
_Bremen_, 214
_Britannia_, 178
_Britannic_, 196, 200
British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., 178
British crews in American packets, 124
British Navigation Laws, Repeal of, 152, 212
_British Queen_, 174
Brunel, 174, 185, 187, 188
Brunswick Basin, 92, 93
_Buckinghamshire_, 135
_Buenos Ayrean_, 190
Burns, George, 177, 178
Cabot, John, 205
Cabot, Sebastian, 49, 55, 59
Caird of Greenock, 210, 214
_Caledonia_, 171, 178
_Campania_, 195, 196, 214
_Canada_, 123
_Canton_, 97
_Cap Trafalgar_, 197
Cargatores, 24
_Carlisle Castle_, 148
_Carmania_, 197, 198
_Carn Brae Castle_, 115
_Caroline_, 111, 112
Carthaginians, 5
_Cedric_, 196
_Celtic_, 196
_Ceylon_, 112
_Challenge_, 153, 154, 156
_Challenger_, 153
Chancellor, Richard, 58
_Charlotte Dundas_, 169, 170
Chaucer, 42
_Chile_, 179
“China Clippers, The,” 164
China fleet, 100
_Christiana_, 25
_Chrysolite_, 153
_Cidona_, 25
Cilicians, 5
City of Dublin Steam Company, 123
_City of Edinburgh_, 172, 173
_City of Glasgow_, 191
_City of Manchester_, 191
_City of New York_, 193
_City of Paris_, 193, 194
_Claremont_, 170
_Clarence_, 147
Clark, Captain A. H., 123, 155
_Clermont_, 170, 171
“Clipper Ship Era, The,” 123, 155
Clipper ships, 151
Clyde, The, 161
Coal brigs, 130
_Cogge_, 39
Collins Line, 124, 182, 195
_Columbia_, 178, 211
Columbus, 14, 48
_Comet_, 170
Communal idea, 22, 27, 56
Continental Service, 119
Convoy of East Indiamen, A, 112
Convoy system, 12, 15, 23
_Conway_, 243
Cook, Captain, 130
Cort, Henry, 189
Cost of building ships, 103
_Coutts_, 98
“Cracking-on,” 150, 158
Cramp shipyard, 223
Cretans, 5
Crutchley, Commander, R.N.R., 144
_Cumberland_, 98
Cunard Company, 178, 186, 190, 192, 195, 197, 202
Cunard losses, 198
Cunard, Mr., 177
_Cutty Sark_, 162, 166, 181
_Cybèle_, 97
Dalmatia, 8
Dance, Commodore, 98, 100, 122
Demand for merchant shipping, 7
Denny, William, 171
Deptford, 81
Desertion, 27
_Deutschland_, 210, 213
Devitt & Moore, 149
Diesel Engines, 240, 243
Discipline, 20
_Dogger_, 40
_Dorsetshire_, 98
Downie, W. I., 138, 166
Drake, Francis, 50
Dramatic Line, 118, 123
_Dreadnought_, 156
_Drottningholm_, 197
_Duchess of Atholl_, 172
_Duke of Marlborough_, 122
_Duke of Richmond_, 94
Dunbar, 135, 144, 147
Dutch East India Company, 73
_Earl of Abergavenny_, 98
_Earl of Balcarres_, 135
_Earl Camden_, 98, 100
_Earl of Hardwicke_, 145, 148
East India Company, 9, 73, 76, 78, 81, 104, 116, 137, 175, 176,
177, 242
East India Docks, 103
East Indiamen, 18, 73, 76, 77, 79, 90, 92, 93, 97, 98, 99, 103,
130, 145, 147, 148, 172, 246
_Edward Bonaventure_, 58, 77
Efficiency of the old-time mariner, 132
Egyptians, 3
_Elbe_, 214
_Elizabeth_, 171, 176
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 125
Emigrant traffic, 212
_Emmanuel_, 72
_Ems_, 214
_Emu_, 145
Enemies, attacks by, 94
English Maritime Law, 31
_Enterprise_, 173
Ericsson, John, 184
_Essex_, 246
_Etruria_, 192
_Europe_, 111, 112
Evolution of the ship, 3, 7, 17, 32, 45, 168
_Exeter_, 98
_Falcon_, 168, 173
_Falmouth_, 92
Falmouth, 179
Falmouth packet service, 119, 122
_Fawkener_, 120
_Ferreira_, 168
_Fiery Cross_, 139, 164
Fishermen and Merchantmen, 62
Fishermen’s quarrels, 70
Fishery Department, Board of Trade, 128
_Flying Cloud_, 143
Forrest, Captain Thomas, 90
_Forte_, 97
_Fortima_, 149
Forwood, Sir William B., 157, 160
Fowler, Lieut. Robert, R.N., 99, 102
_Francis B. Ogden_, 184
Free Trade, 222
Free trade vessels, 135
French Mercantile Marine, 231, 232
French Naval Architects, 93
Fulton, Robert, 170
Future of the Mercantile Marines, 246
_Ganges_, 98, 99, 100
Geary, Captain, R.N., 115
General Steam Navigation Company, 145, 172, 182
Genoa, 13
_Geordie_, 130
_George Washington_, 216
German Australian Line, 208
German East Africa Line, 208
German liners, 195
_Giulio Cesare_, 233
_Godezere_, 38
_Grâce Dieu_, 53
_Great Britain_, 183, 185, 186
_Great Eastern_, 188, 190, 196
_Great Republic_, 156
_Great Western_, 174, 183
Great Western Steamship Company, 185
Greeks, 3
Greens, The, 77, 94, 104, 115, 116, 135, 136, 138, 144, 145, 146,
153, 172
Grotius, 64
Growth of the Mercantile Marine, 42
Guion Line, 183, 192
“Gulliver’s Travels,” 84, 86
_Guy Mannering_, 118
Hakluyt, 50, 55
Hall, Messrs., 153
Hamburg-America Line, 208, 209, 211
Hamburg-Bremen-Africa Line, 208
Hamburg-South America Line, 208
Hansa Line, 208
Hanseatic League, 34, 41, 62, 65
Harland, Sir Edward, 187
Harland & Wolff, 187, 190
Hawkins, 51
Hay, Captain, 113, 114
Heligoland, 41
_Hellenis_, 170
_Henry Addington_, 98
Herbert, of Cherbury, Lord, 84
Herring exports in 1913, 129
_Highflyer_, H.M.S., 215
_Himalaya_, 188
_Hindostan_, 180
Holy Land, The, 11
_Homeric_, 199, 201
_Hope_, 98, 99
Hornby, Admiral Phipps, 201
_Hotspur_, 141, 142
Hour-glasses, 85
Huddart, Captain Joseph, F.R.S., 122
Hulls, Jonathan, 169
Illyrians, 5
_Imperator_, 202, 217
Indian Empire, 9
_Indomitable_, 166, 199
Inman, William, 191
Inman Line, 183
Ionians, 5
Iron and Steel, 182
Iron Mast, The first, 185
_Isaac Webb_, 118
Ismay, T. H., 190
Istria, 8
Italian Mercantile Marine, 233
_Ivernia_, 196
James, Sir William, Bart., 98
_James Baines_, 143
_James Watt_, 173
Japanese Merchant Fleet, 233
Jardine, Mattheson & Co., 146
_John Tutteburie_, 39
Jouffroy, Marquis de, 169
_Judith_, 51
_Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, 196, 214, 215, 216
_Kaiser Wilhelm II._, 215
_Kaiserin Auguste Victoria_, 214
_Kate Carnie_, 161
_Kent_, 146, 147, 148
_King of the Netherlands_, 172
Kosmos Line, 208
_La France_, 232
_Lady Jocelyn_, 164
_Lady Lansdowne_, 183
_Lady Melville_, 104, 135
Laird & Co., 183, 184, 211
Laws of Oleron, 30
_Leicester_, 78
Lennox, Captain Charles, 97
Letters of Marque, 96, 129
_Leviathan_, 203, 217
Linois, Admiral, 99, 100, 120
Liparian Isles, 5
Liverpool, Port of, 80, 104, 164
Lloyd’s Register, 91, 173, 176, 240
London, Port of, 80, 104, 117
_Lord Keith_, 111, 112
_Lord Macartney_, 93
Lowell, James Russell, 126
Lubbock, Basil, 164
_Lucania_, 195, 196, 214
_Lucie Woermann_, 231
Lucy, Sir Thomas, 85
_Lusitania_, 198, 199
Lycians, 5
MacIver, David, 177, 178
McKay, Donald, 156
_Macquarie_, 136, 149
_Madagascar_, 148
_Madre de Dios_, 50
_Majestic_, 170, 194, 199, 202, 203, 204, 206, 218
Malocello, 46
Manby, Aaron, 183
_Marco Polo_, 143, 157
_Marengo_, 100
Marine Insurance Company, The first, 91
“Mariner’s Jewel, The,” 84
Maritime Acts, 65
Maritime Law, 19, 30
_Marlborough_, 147
_Martaban_, 160
Mastery of the Sea, 88
_Mauritania_, 198, 199, 200, 205
Mediterranean, 7, 17
Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, 160
Merchant Ships of the North, 30
Merchantman as privateer or pirate, 87
Melbourne, 136, 148
Melbourne trade, 147
_Memnon_, 151
Mercantile Marine of the Sixteenth Century, 53
Mercantile Marines, The Minor, 229
Mercantile Supremacy at Sea, 90
Meriton, Captain, 112, 113
Messageries Maritimes, 231
Michelson, Godeke, 40
Middle Ages, 10, 13, 21, 37, 52
“Midshipman, Reminiscences of a Blackwall,” 138
Midshipmen, 137
Mighty Merchantmen, 103
Milford steam packets, 124
Miller, Patrick, 169
_Minerve_, 112
_Moa_, 145
Modern Merchant Ship, The, 194
Modern Navigation, 200
Moffat, Captain H. Y., 131
_Monarch_, 148
Moneys, The, 94, 104, 116, 146
Monson, Sir William, 82
Moodie, Captain, 166
Moslem power, 10, 11
_Mount Vernon_, 221
Mourning, sign of, 141
Napier, Robert, 171, 177, 178
Navigation Acts, 65, 67
Navigation Laws, Repeal of, 176
_Neptune_, 145
_New World_, 118
Nisbett, Captain, 247
_Nordamerika_, 210
_Norfolk_, 148
North German Lloyd, 196, 208, 209, 214, 215
North Sea fisheries, 32
_Northumberland_, 144
_Novelty_, 184
_Ocean_, 97, 98
_Oceanic_, 190, 196
O’Halloran, Captain, 158
_Oliva_, 25
_Olympic_, 170, 199, 200
Opium trade, 151
_Oregon_, 192
_Orient_, 192
Orient Line, 192
_Oriental_, 152, 154
_Orinoco_, 170
_Osterley_, 92
Owen, Sir Douglas, 31
_Owen Glendower_, 145, 148
Pacific Steam Navigation Company, 179
Packet Ships and Brigs, 119
Panama Canal, 223, 224
_Paris_, 232
Park, Robert, 95
Patriotic Fund Committee, 101
Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, 77, 124, 179, 188
Pepys, Samuel, 81, 84
_Persia_, 186
_Peru_, 179
Peters, Andrew, 114
Pett, Phineas, 80
Phœnicians, 3
_Piémontaise_, 108, 110
Piracy, 5, 37
Pisa, 13
Plimsoll mark, 25
Polar Expedition, The first, 67
Poplar Fund, 106
Portsmouth, Admiral of, 115
_Premium_, 131
_President_, 175
_Prince of Wales_, 146, 148
Prince Henry the Navigator, 47, 75, 76, 77
_Princess Royal_, 182
_Prinzessin Charlotte_, 171
Privateer, 96
Quadruple-Expansion Engine, 197
_Queen_, 146, 148
Rabelais, 54
_Rainbow_, 151
Rainier, Rear-Admiral, 97
_Red Dragon_, 78
_Red Jacket_, 157
Red Star Line, 123
_Regent_, 53
_Rhein_, 210
Rhodian sea-law, 19, 30
Richard Cœur de Lion, 11, 30
Rise and Fall of the German Mercantile Marine, 208
_Rob Roy_, 171
_Robert F. Stockton_, 184
Rogers, Captain W., 122
Roland Line, 208
_Roman_, 144
Roman merchant ships, 4, 17
Ross & Primrose, 177
Royal Fishery Company, 69
_Royal George_, 98, 99, 100, 101
Royal Mail Line, 124, 179
_Royal Oake_, 81
_Royal William_, 173, 174, 177
Russell, John Scott, 187, 188
_St. Blazius_, 25
_St. Louis_, 223
_St. Paul_, 223
Sail-Carriers, The, 134
_Samuel Russell_, 151
_San Felipe_, 50
_Savannah_, 171
_Saxonia_, 196, 211
“School and Sea Days,” 141
_Scotia_, 186
Screw Propeller, The, 183
Sea Fisheries Act of 1868, 128
Sea language, 82
Seamanship, Fine, 118
Seamen as authors, 54
_Sea Witch_, 151
Selden, 64
_Sémillante_, 100
Sercey, Rear-Admiral, 97
_Serica_, 161, 164
_Seringapatam_, 135, 136, 145
_Servia_, 190
Seventeenth-Century Seafaring, 74, 75
Ship-money, Levying of, 65
Shipbuilding in America, 224, 225
_Shipper Berline of Prussia_, 39
Ship’s bell, Introduction of, 53
Shipwrights Company, 80
Side-lights, 123
Signal code, 74
_Silenus_, 111
Simon of Utrecht, 41
_Sir Edward Paget_, 115, 116
_Sir Lancelot_, 161, 164, 166
_Sirius_, 173, 174
Smith, Francis, 184
Smith, T. & W., 116, 136, 144, 147
Somes, 135, 147
Southampton, 179
_Sovereign of the Seas_, 66, 143
_Spain_, 194
Spanish Armada, 63, 67
Spars and Stays, 160
_Speculum Nauticum_, 72
State post-office, 119
Steam, Iron and Steel, 168, 182
Steele of Greenock, 161, 164
Stertebeker, 40
Stevens, John, 184
Stokehold of an Oil-Fuel Cunarder, 216
Stone ballast, 60
_Stornoway_, 153
_Streatham_, 111, 112
_Sylph_, 146
Suez Canal, 167, 180, 182, 194
_Sultan_, 192
_Superb_, 148
Swift, Dean, 84, 86
Symington, William, 169
_Taeping_, 139, 161, 164
_Taitsing_, 165
_Taunton Castle_, 97
_Teutonic_, 194
_Thames_, 135
_Thermopylae_, 162, 165, 166, 167, 181
_Three Brothers_, 130
_Tilbury_, 92
Timmins, Captain, 101
_Titanic_, 200
_Townshend_, 120
Toynbee, Arnold, 141
Toynbee, Captain Henry, F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S., 141
_Trades Increase_, 79
Traditions, 243
_Trafalgar_, 138, 139
_Trident_, 182
Triple-Expansion Engine, 197
Triumph of Steam, The, 168
_Truelove_, 129
Turbine, The, 197
_Turbinia_, 197
_Umbria_, 192
Union Line, 144
United States Merchant Marine Act, 227
United States Shipping Board, 225
Urmston, Sir James, 246
Urmston, Colonel E. B., C.B., 246
_Urso_, 25
_Valentine_, 92
Vasco da Gama, 47, 75, 77
_Vaterland_, 202, 217
Venetian Statutes, 21, 25
Venetians, 8, 11, 13, 29
_Vesta_, 124
_Victor_, 110, 112
_Victoria_, 187
_Victorian_, 197
Victual Brothers, 40
_Virginia_, 220
_Virginian_, 197, 230
Vivaldi, 47
Walpole, Capt. Hon. Richard, 98
_Warley_, 98, 100
_Warren Hastings_, 93, 98, 107
_Washington Irving_, 125
_Waterloo_, 104
West Indiamen, 90
West Indies Service, 121
_Wexford_, 98
Whall, Captain W. B., 141, 142, 143
White Star Line, 157, 183, 187, 188, 191, 194, 196, 198, 200, 202, 211
Wigrams, The, 77, 94, 104, 115, 116, 135, 144, 145, 146, 172
_William Fawcett_, 180
Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 59
Wilson, Captain Henry, 98
_Windham_, 112
_Windsor Castle_, 147
Woermann Line, 208
_Woodford_, 97
_Worcester_, 146, 243
World’s Biggest Ship, 206
Wreckers, 23
MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN.
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
PRINTERS, BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
Transcriber’s Notes
pg 43 Changed: pilgrim trade to Santiago de Campostela
To: pilgrim trade to Santiago de Compostela
pg 122 Changed: between Yarmouth and Helvoetsluis in Holland
To: between Yarmouth and Hellevoetsluis in Holland
pg 128 Changed: Inverness, Brassey Sound, Kirkwall, Oban
To: Inverness, Bressay Sound, Kirkwall, Oban
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