Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post Part 12

Mr. Wm. Iselin, of Havre, kindly furnished me the following:

"The French Government has offered the following contracts:

"Havre to New-York, 26 voyages a year, fr.3,100,000, or $620,000.

"Bordeaux to Rio Janeiro, touching at Lisbon, Goree, Bahia, or Pernambuco, and a branch line from Rio Janeiro to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, 24 voyages a year, fr.4,700,000, or $940,000. The Government now requires 13 departures from Bordeaux and 13 from Ma.r.s.eilles at the same price.

"Nantes to St. Thomas, thence to Guadalupe, and thence to Martinique, with the following branch lines:

"No. 1. St. Thomas to St. Martha or Carthagena, and thence to Aspinwall.

"No. 2. St. Thomas to Porto Rico, thence to Havana, Vera Cruz, and Tampico.

"No. 3. From Martinique to Cayenne.

"The subvention offered is fr.6,200,000, or $1,400,000.

"The total amount of subvention offered for the 3 lines is therefore 14 millions of francs per annum, or $2,800,000.

"The Messageries Imperiales have given a tender for the Brazil lines.

"William Iselin of Havre, in connection with Mr. Calley St. Paul, for the Havre and New-York line; the necessary capital of $3,200,000 is subscribed; their intention is to have a weekly departure from Havre to New-York, by making the fortnightly departures of the French boats alternate with American Havre and Bremen boats.

"For the line from Nantes to the West-Indies the Company Gautier is said to have given a tender; but it is doubtful if they can make up their capital."

The _Messageries Imperiales_ is one of the largest and strongest companies in all Europe. They have the following different lines: the Italian, the Constantinople direct, the Levant, the Egyptian, the Syrian, that of the Archipelago, the Anatolia, the Thessalian, the Danubian, the Trebizond, the Algiers, the Oran, and the Tunis lines, and forty-seven sea-steamers. They have already obtained the Brazilian service.

Mr. Iselin and others have proposed for the United States line, and will doubtless get it.

The Company Gautier may not get the West-India service, it is said.

They had the line from Havre to New-York, with the steamers Alma, Cadis, Barcelona, Franc-Contois, Vigo, and the Lyonnaise, and without subvention. They found it impossible to run it without subsidy, and hence, sought a new home for their steamers. They attempted to run from Havre to New-Orleans; but this again failed, after four voyages.

They had also the 1,800 ton ether s.h.i.+ps, "Francois Arago," and "Jacquart," which broke down. These ether engines were built on the principle of De Tremblay; but the Company are now subst.i.tuting steam for the ether engines. Thus, the experience of this Company proves two important positions which I have taken; that ocean mail steamers can not run on their receipts, and that many of the gazetted improvements on steam propulsion and the ordinary methods are valueless.

The _Compagnie Gautier_ have a contract with Spain, for semi-monthly voyages between Cadiz and Havana, and receive $25,000 per round voyage for each steamer. They are all English built, iron vessels, of about 1,800 tons each. Lyons is the home of the Company.

PAPER D.

STEAM LINES BETWEEN EUROPE AND AMERICA.

COLLINS, steamers Adriatic, Atlantic, and Baltic; (running:)

HAVRE, steamers Arago, and Fulton; "

BREMEN, steamers North Star, and Ariel; "

HAVRE, _in connection with the Bremen_. Steamer Vanderbilt; (laid up:)

CUNARD, steamers Persia, Arabia, Asia, Africa, Canada, America, Niagara, and Europa; (running:)

CUNARD, screw-steamers Etna, Jura, Emue, Lebanon, and Cambria, (side-wheel; all running:)

GLASGOW, screw-steamers Glasgow, Edinburgh, and New-York; (running:)

BREMEN, steamer Ericsson; run temporarily by Mr. Sands; (laid up:)

LIVERPOOL AND PORTLAND, screw-steamers Khersonese and Circa.s.sian, General Williams and Antelope; the two latter about 1,500 each, running _via_ St. John's, N. F., the two former chartered for the East-Indies:

LONDON AND MONTREAL, screw-steamers; (names not known:)

LIVERPOOL AND QUEBEC, screw-steamers; " " "

LIVERPOOL AND NEW-YORK, screw-steamers City of Manchester, City of Baltimore, City of Was.h.i.+ngton, and Kangaroo, (running;) (line ran to Philadelphia and was withdrawn:)

HAMBURG AND NEW-YORK, screw-steamers Borussia and Hammonia; building two more steamers, each 2,000 tons, in the Clyde, for same line; (running:)

ANTWERP AND NEW-YORK, screw-steamers Belgique, Const.i.tution, Leopold I., Duc de Brabant, and Congress. _Taken off and chartered to British Government for transporting troops. Names altered:_

LONDON, CORK AND NEW-YORK, screw-steamers Minna and Brenda; (laid up:)

HAVRE AND NEW-YORK, screw-steamers Barcelona, Jacquart, Alma, and Francois Arago, _withdrawn, and running from Spain to Cuba_. (_See Paper C._)

BREMEN AND NEW-YORK. The North Dutch Lloyds are building four screw-steamers in the Clyde, of near 3,000 each, to run between Bremen and New-York:

THE CONTINENT, SOUTHAMPTON AND NEW-YORK. Croskey's lino consists of the following screws, of about 2,300 tons each: the Argo, Calcutta, Queen of the South, Lady Jocelyn, Hydaspes, Indiana, Jason, and Golden Fleece. (_Most of these steamers have been withdrawn from the route, and five of them are chartered for troops for India._)

PAPER E.

The following numerous extracts from the Senate Reports of 1850 and 1852, and also from the letter of Judge Collamer, then Post Master General, as well as from a letter by the Hon. Edwin Croswell, will present in detail a strong corroboration of the views which I have taken in the preceding Sections. I copy first from the Report of 1852.

The Committee was composed of Hon. Thomas J. Rusk, Chairman, and Messrs. Soule, Hamlin, Upham, and Morton. The Report says:

"Your Committee desire to have it understood at the outset, that, regarding the ocean mail service as the offspring of the wants of all of the producing cla.s.ses of the country, they have not felt at liberty to consider the propositions which have been presented to them, in any other point of view than as connected with and subservient to the general policy of the government, which embraces alike every section of the country, and can not know nor recognize any personal or local influence.

"The system of ocean steam navigation was adopted by the Government for the joint purpose of extending and advancing the commercial and other great interests of the country, and, at the same time, providing a marine force which might be easily made available for the protection of American rights, in the event of a collision with foreign powers. The attainment of this double object was the motive which, in the opinion of Congress, justified the advance of public funds in aid of private enterprise, inasmuch as it was calculated to insure to the country the acquisition of a powerful means of maritime defense, with little or no expense, eventually, as the money so advanced was to be reimbursed in money or in mail service at the option of the parties concerned, while commerce and the arts would be promoted during the time of peace.

"At the time when this system was commenced, the ocean mails along our whole Southern coast were in the hands of foreign carriers, sustained and encouraged by the British Government, under the forms of contracts to carry the British mails; while the Cunard line between Liverpool and Boston, _via_ Halifax, const.i.tuted the only medium of regular steam mail communication between the United States and Europe. In this way the commercial interests of the United States were, on the one hand, entirely at the mercy of British steamers which plied along our Southern coast, entering our ports at pleasure, and thereby acquiring an intimate knowledge of the soundings and other peculiarities of our harbors--a knowledge which might prove infinitely injurious to us in the event of a war with Great Britain; and on the other, of a foreign line of ocean mail steamers, which, under the liberal patronage of the British Government, monopolized the steam mail postage and freights between the two countries. Under such a state of things, it became necessary to choose whether American commerce should continue to be thus tributary to British maritime supremacy, or an American medium of communication should be established through the intervention of the Federal Government, in the form of advances of pecuniary means in aid of individual enterprise. It had been found to be impossible for our merchants to contend successfully, single handed, against the joint efforts of the British Government and British commercial influence. Our n.o.ble lines of packet s.h.i.+ps which had far outstripped the sailing vessels of all other nations, in point of beauty and swiftness, had been superseded by the introduction of steamers, the power and capacity of which recommended them, as the best means of inter-communication by mail, and of transportation for lighter and more profitable freights, and American interests were becoming every day more and more tributary to British ascendency on the ocean.

"Under the circ.u.mstances above stated, it was impossible for Congress to hesitate for a moment which course to pursue, and it was determined to adopt a policy which, while it would be in strict accordance with the spirit of our free inst.i.tutions, should place the country in its proper att.i.tude, and render its commerce and postal arrangements independent of all foreign or rival agencies.

"Of the correctness of this determination, experience has furnished the most ample evidences in the results which thus far have attended the prosecution of the system. The line between New-York and Chagres _via_ New-Orleans and its auxiliaries, have, by their superiority in point of swiftness and accommodation, already superseded the British steamers which had previously plied along our Southern maritime frontier, and the United States mails for Mexico, South-America, and our possessions on the Pacific are no longer in the hands of foreign carriers, but are transported in American steamers of the first cla.s.s, convertible, at a very small expense, into war steamers, should occasion require, which have commanded the admiration of the world by their fleetness and the elegance of their accommodations for the travelling public. Our Southern ports are, consequently, no longer frequented by British steamers, commanded by officers of the British crown, whose legitimate business it is to collect intelligence respecting the approaches to and defenses of the harbors which they visit, to be made available for their own purposes, in the event of the existence of hostile relations.