354. Transportation by sailing vessels and steamers.—Steam has won for itself, in the course of the century, the commanding place in sea transportation as well as in land transportation. The struggle with competitors has lasted longer and the victory has been less complete. Steam navigation, however, offers such advantages in sureness, safety, speed, and cost, that sailing vessels have been forced out of some of the most important branches of commerce, and must content themselves with what the steamers leave them. Reference to the table at the opening of the preceding chapter will enable the student to follow the development of the means of transportation by sea in the course of the century, and to observe the growth in importance of the steamer. In explanation of the figures of carrying-power it should be said that a steamer is regarded as having three or four times the efficiency of a sailing vessel of equal tonnage; such an estimate is, of course, a mere approximation, and, indeed, the figures of tonnage, especially in the earlier part of the century, are themselves very uncertain.

355. Development of sailing vessels.—European sailing vessels at the opening of the century followed substantially the clumsy lines of the old East Indiamen. The chief credit for the improvement of wooden vessels is due to the Americans, whose clipper ships, marvels of grace and speed, were without rivals in their day. The clipper Dreadnought made the passage from New York to Queenstown in less than ten days, and in 1846 the American Tornado, starting from England with an early steamer of the Cunard line, reached America before her. The Great Republic, an American four-masted clipper, was of 3,400 tons and was the largest sailing vessel in the world; British ships of this period rarely exceeded a thousand tons in register.

The suggestion of iron for building ships was met at first with ridicule; some people, of course, thought that an iron ship would surely sink, and more serious objections were found in the cost, the derangement of the compass, and the fouling of the ship’s bottom. Iron, however, came gradually into use for steamers, and, after 1850, was applied more and more generally to the constructions of sailing vessels. Iron vessels were actually superior in buoyancy to wooden, drawing less water and carrying more cargo with a given tonnage; they were cheaper in the long run, because they are stronger, more durable, and less exposed to destruction by fire. Furthermore, iron was absolutely essential if the size of ships was to be increased. Builders of wooden ships were limited by the average height of trees, and, in spite of all devices, could not construct a frame sufficiently strong for a vessel exceeding about 300 feet in length. The size of an iron or steel ship is practically unlimited. The cost of ships constructed of metal has decreased with advances in the manufacture of iron and steel; remedies, fairly satisfactory, have been found for the derangement of the compass; and though it has been found impracticable to apply copper sheathing to steel ships, the fouling of the bottom is an evil of minor importance.

356. Relative decline of sailing vessels, notwithstanding improvements.—During the second half of the nineteenth century the wooden ship gradually disappeared from the seas, giving place to vessels constructed first of iron and then of steel. The country which suffered most from the change, as will appear later, was the United States; the country best prepared to profit by it was England. The English now rapidly enlarged the dimensions of their ships, and improved their rig and model. Some of the modern steel ships carry 5,000 tons of cargo, or even more. A study of winds prevailing on the ocean, to which an American officer, Maury, made important contributions, enabled sailing vessels to choose a course which, on many routes, shortened the duration of the voyage a third or more. Steam has been applied for handling the cargo, and for managing the rudder and sails.

In spite of all improvements the sailing vessel has not been able to keep its share of sea-borne commerce. So much depends on certainty in modern business that the merchant will gladly pay a higher freight rate to be relieved of the element of uncertainty which is bound to attend navigation by sails. Steamers now exceed the sailing vessels of the world not only in tonnage, and still more in effective carrying capacity, but even in number also, if only vessels of 100 tons and above are counted.

357. Steamers used at first chiefly for internal navigation.—American inventors made a practical success of steam navigation soon after 1800; a brief notice of their work will be given later. The steamer was used at first, however, chiefly for internal navigation and for short coasting voyages. It was of immense importance in furthering the development of the Mississippi Valley in America; and it soon made a place for itself on the European rivers. About 1840 there was a rapid development of steam transportation on the German rivers, and this has not ceased to grow in volume and efficiency. Chains have been laid along some of the river beds; on the Elbe, for instance, a chain extends all the way across Germany and even into Bohemia; and by this means steamboats are enabled to haul their barges up-stream against a strong current. The application of steam to ocean navigation did not become of great importance until about the middle of the century. At that time only one fifth of the steam tonnage entering British ports came from foreign ports; the rest was employed still in the coasting trade.

358. Beginnings of steam navigation of the Atlantic.—The credit for the first passage across the Atlantic by steam has often been ascribed to the American ship Savannah, which arrived at Liverpool in 1819 after a voyage of twenty-nine days. This boat, however, should be classed as a sailing ship with auxiliary engine, rather than as a steamer; the paddle-wheels were arranged to be removed and hoisted on deck when the wind was fair. It made most of the distance by sailing, and the scanty supply of coal gave out before it reached its port, so that, as the log reads, there was “no cole to git up steam.” A Canadian boat, the Royal William, actually did make the whole passage under steam in 1833, but stopped at Pictou for coal on the way; while the first regular steamship to cross without recoaling was the Great Western in 1838. The considerable intervals between these trips show that navigation of the ocean by steam was still in its experimental stage. Indeed, in the very year 1838, in which the Great Western and the Sirius began the period of practical application, a leading English scientist set out to prove by arguments and statistics that the project of connecting Liverpool and New York by direct steamer trips was “perfectly chimerical.” The Cunard Company was founded the next year; and some measure of the appreciation of the American people is given by the fact that when Mr. Cunard arrived at Boston in 1840, on the first trip of the new line, he received (it is said) no less than 1,873 invitations to dinner within twenty-four hours!

359. Improvement of the means of steam navigation.—The early steamers were moved by paddle-wheels, which offer special advantages for use in shallow water, but which are not so efficient as the screw propeller in the open sea. They require heavier and bulkier engines which must be placed in the best part of the ship, they waste power, and they show the effects of wear and tear more quickly. The Great Britain, which made its first voyage in 1845, was noteworthy on two accounts: it was the first large steamer (over 3,000 tons) to be built of iron, and it was the first to introduce the screw in ocean navigation. These two improvements were adopted by the Inman line (1850) and were gradually accepted by other builders.

In the second half of the century various improvements have added still more to the efficiency of the ocean steamer. Early steamers ran under such a low steam pressure that we find recorded in the log-book of one, “Broke the larboard steam-pipe, lapped it with canvas and rope-yarn and proceeded”! Higher pressures were introduced, and after about 1870 the steam was more fully utilized by compound engines, of which some have three or even four sets of cylinders. The introduction of twin screws, first applied to the City of New York (1889), has added rather to the safety than the speed of a passage, by permitting further development of the system of water-tight compartments.

360. Gains resulting from increase in size.—Another most important factor in the development of efficient steamers has been mere growth in size. A ship’s carrying power varies as the cube of her dimensions, while the resistance offered by the water increases only a little faster than the square of her dimensions. Large ships, therefore, consume less coal per ton of cargo, and as large boilers and engines consume coal more efficiently than small ones, there is a double gain. Here again, as in the case of railroads, the introduction of cheap steel has been of immense importance, and may fairly be said to have revolutionized the art of ship-building since 1875. While in 1880 nine tenths of British steamers were still constructed of iron, the proportion had sunk in 1890 to less than one twentieth, and the employment of steel is now almost universal. From steel are constructed the great cargo-carriers and the fast express steamers of the modern oceanic service. Some conception of the progress that has been made can be got by a comparison with earlier conditions. In 1841 the total steam tonnage of the British Empire was 188,000; nowadays a single steamer (Leviathan, Majestic) has a tonnage in excess of 50,000. The horse-power of British steamers in 1841 was estimated at 75,000; nowadays a single steamer, has an indicated horse-power almost equal to that total. The boilers of a modern express steamer (Teutonic) were required to evaporate 120 tons of water every hour, yet so thoroughly is the heat utilized that it was said of a steamer some years ago that the burning of a sheet of paper would move a ton a mile.

361. Resulting decline in freight rates.—Even in 1884 a competent writer could make this interesting statement: twenty years before, a steamer of 3,000 tons had to allow for coal and machinery on a given voyage 2,200 tons, and must confine the cargo to the remaining space; at the date when he wrote the great improvements had reversed the proportions, so that only 800 tons were needed for motive power and 2,200 were devoted to cargo. Manifestly steamship owners would be enabled by a change of this character to lower greatly the charges for transportation, and freight rates have, in fact, declined steadily in the course of the century. Lancashire spinners could transport their raw cotton from the source of supply in America at one sixteenth the cost which they had to bear sixty years before. Even in the last quarter of the century ocean freight rates dropped to one half, one third, or even one fourth, of the figures prevailing in 1874.

Conditions such as have been thus briefly suggested explain the immense increase in sea-borne traffic during the century. For the carriage of that traffic the merchant has now at his disposal not only the sailing ship and the “tramp,” the general-utility steamer, but also a multitude of special boats for special services: the tank-steamer for transporting liquids cheaply, the cattle steamer for live stock, and the steamer with refrigerators for dead meat, the fruit steamer, etc. The use of oil as fuel and the introduction of explosion motors of the Diesel type promise to raise still higher the efficiency of transportation.

362. Modern ship canals.—This survey of the development of the means of navigation may fitly be closed by a brief consideration of the modern ship canals and their contribution to the growth of trade. There were, in 1900, a round dozen of these canals, capable of receiving sea-going ships. Some, serving special ports (Amsterdam, Manchester, etc.) were of purely local importance. Others have disappointed the expectations of their promoters. The canal across the isthmus of Corinth has been a distinct failure, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, between the North and Baltic seas, has not yet acquired the share of commerce which its projectors promised for it. Leaving aside the St. Mary’s canal in America there was up to 1914 but one ship canal which had proved its commanding importance, namely the Suez Canal.

A map of the world shows two narrow strips of land left by nature almost as though with the design of stimulating men to pierce them, the isthmus of Suez and the isthmus of Panama. A canal at either point unites not countries or small seas, but continents and great oceans, and saves thousands of miles in the routes of trade. The American isthmus presents great difficulties to the construction of a canal, but the Suez route runs through a district composed almost entirely of sand, with no elevation above 50 or 60 feet and with considerable parts actually below the level of the sea.

363. The Suez Canal, and its services to commerce.—The scheme of reopening the route across the isthmus of Suez, which, as said in the first chapter, had been made practicable for small vessels before the time of Christ, and had been rendered useless in the Middle Ages, was certain to rise as commerce between Europe and the East increased in volume. It is said to have been entertained by Napoleon I among others, but the credit for its accomplishment belongs to a French engineer and promoter, Ferdinand Lesseps. After more than ten years spent in preparation, work was finally begun in 1860, and the canal was ready for use in 1869.

The success of the Suez Canal may be gaged, from the investor’s standpoint, by the fact that dividends have risen to 20 per cent, from the public standpoint by the fact that the tonnage accommodated by the canal in 1891 exceeded ten million, in 1907 exceeded twenty million, and in general has been roughly equal to the tonnage entering and leaving any one of the great seaports of the world. The duration of the voyage to India has been shortened by a third, and more than half of the voyages to the East are now made through the canal rather than around the Cape of Good Hope. The canal has been an important influence in furthering the growth of the world’s steam tonnage, for it is practically barred to sailing vessels by the difficulties of navigation in the Red Sea; no sea-going sailing vessel has passed through it for years. It has made possible the movement of bulky wares formerly excluded from the trade with the East by the expense of transportation: rice, wheat, petroleum, and coal. It has not, however, produced one result which was expected, the diversion of trade to the countries of southern Europe, as in the time before the passage around the Cape had been discovered. Three quarters, in tonnage, of the ships using the canal have been British, and ships from the countries of northern Europe make up most of the remainder.

364. The Panama Canal.—Lesseps could not match in America the success which he had attained at Suez. A French company promoted by him started work at Panama in 1881, but became bankrupt before it had made much progress. Mismanagement at home, disease on the isthmus, above all the tremendous difficulties which nature has placed in the way of a canal at sea level, contributed to this result. The United States took up as a national enterprise a work which now offered but little attraction to private capital, bought out the French company, and in 1904 made arrangements to begin operations. Taught by the experience of the past the government decided on a canal with locks, reaching an altitude of 85 feet above sea level, and took the precautions suggested by sanitary science to protect the laborers against the menaces of plague, yellow fever and malaria. Under army engineers the work was carried on to a successful conclusion, and the canal was opened to traffic in August, 1914. The cost of construction was about $350,000,000.

In the first year of its operation the Panama Canal accommodated about five million tons of shipping; in the year ending in 1920 the figure had risen to about ten. The dislocation of traffic caused by the European War, and interruptions occasioned by earthslides in the Gaillard cut, made the growth of traffic slow and somewhat irregular. Figures for the traffic of the Suez Canal given in the preceding section show that the canal across the American isthmus could not rival in its early years the position of its older competitor for the world’s trade. Even more impressive is a comparison with the figures of traffic through the Sault Ste. Marie canals, on the northern border of the United States. The cargo tonnage by the lake route in 1920 was over eight-fold that carried through the isthmus. The Panama Canal, to 1920, had just about paid the expense of operation and maintenance. There seems no question, however, that apart from important military considerations, the construction of the canal will be justified by the contribution that it will make to the commercial development of the Pacific.

365. The postal service about 1800.—Increased facility in sending communications to a distance has attended the improvement of the means of transportation by land and sea. During the early part of the century the postal service was still cramped by old methods and high charges. In England, for instance, in the period after 1827 and before the reform, postage of fourpence (eight cents) was charged for the carriage of a letter any distance not exceeding 15 miles, and the postage increased with the distance: 8 pence for 80 miles, 12 pence for 300, 15 pence for 600, etc. The government charged, in some cases, nearly five hundred times the actual cost. Under these conditions little use, naturally, was made of the post, and it carried, on an annual average, only three letters for each member of the population. Many letters were sent illicitly by private means of conveyance, and the postal revenue remained nearly stationary for many years before 1839, in spite of the growth of the country in population and business activity. Conditions were better in some states of the Continent, notably Germany, but would still be regarded everywhere as backward.

366. Postal reforms and their results.—A new era in the English postal system dates from the introduction by Rowland Hill of the penny post; after 1840 a letter weighing not over half an ounce could be sent to any place in the United Kingdom if prepaid by a stamp costing one penny. Similar reductions were adopted in other countries; and new facilities were extended for the mailing of cards, printed matter, and periodicals, samples of merchandise, etc. An international Postal Union was established in 1874 among the chief countries of the world, which agreed on common rates of foreign postage, and arranged to cooperate in carrying on the postal service. This Union has improved greatly the means of distant postal communication, and has grown to include practically the whole civilized world, with the exception of China.

It is easy to follow the effects of the various reforms and improvements in the increased use of the mails. In the United Kingdom, for instance, the number of letters sent per head of the population has increased as follows: 1839, 3; 1840, 7; 1872, 28; 1882, 35. The post has developed from a luxury into a social and industrial necessity, and the extent to which it is used in any country furnishes a fair index by which to judge of the country’s advancement. The following countries may be taken as examples, the figures showing the number of pieces of mail sent annually about 1900, per head of the population: United States, 100; United Kingdom, 85; Germany, 81; France, 55; Italy, 17; Japan, 13; Spain, 12; Russian Empire, 5.

367. The telegraph before the application of electricity.—In passing to another subject, electricity, we may still consider ourselves as continuing the discussion of the applications of steam, so dependent are we still on coal and steam for the means of producing and using this new force. Among the manifold applications of electricity in modern life we must here confine ourselves to its use as a means of communication.

The telegraph, a word meaning “far-writing,” existed long before men thought of applying electricity to its operation. The need of sending messages quickly to distant places had led in many countries, before 1800, to a system of signaling by means of instruments much like the semaphores of the modern railroad. The crudeness of such a system is apparent. Communication depended entirely on clear weather and careful observers. Under favorable conditions the speed of signaling was really surprising; a despatch could be sent, for instance, from Paris to Strassburg, by 45 stations, in 6¹⁄₂ minutes. It was estimated, however, that of the messages received only a quarter reached their destination promptly, another quarter were from six to twenty-four hours late, while half had to be forwarded by the ordinary post. Aerial telegraphy, therefore, never attained to great importance, and was restricted largely to government business.

368. The electric telegraph.—Practical telegraphy dates from about 1840, when the inventions of the American Morse, and the Englishman Wheatstone, made the use of electricity possible wherever an insulated conductor could be laid. Imperfect as were the early instruments they accomplished their purpose with remarkable success. The telegraph, indeed, has probably undergone less change in the course of its extension and practical development than any other invention of equal importance. We must look, therefore, to explain the great extension of its use, as shown in the statistics at the opening of the chapter, not so much for technical improvements as for a recognition of the value of the telegraph on the part of the public. It found an immediate application on the railroads, and provided them with a means of intelligence and control almost as important as is the nervous system to a human being. It was used at once, moreover, by governments. Little by little it made its way into business life, where it has found its chief field of usefulness, and where it has effected some most important changes, to be noted later.

Since about 1880 the telephone has made a place for itself beside the telegraph, serving the convenience of individual consumers as the telegraph serves the needs of the great captains of industry and commerce, and constantly strengthening its position also as an instrument for the transaction of business.

369. Submarine telegraph lines.—The telegraph, which soon became of national and international importance, was still of restricted influence so long as it was confined to the land lines. Experiments on a modest scale, about the middle of the century, had shown the possibility of conducting the electric current through an insulated cable under water, and the world waited only for men of faith and energy to connect continents by submarine lines. A group of prominent Americans, of whom Cyrus W. Field was the leader, took up the project of an Atlantic cable, failed twice in their attempts to lay it, and succeeded in 1858 only to find, after a few days of successful operation, that the cable had ceased to work. The project rested during the Civil War, but in 1866 was finally accomplished. The extension of submarine cables since that time may be followed in the statistics of the preceding chapter. Cables now unite the peoples of all civilized nations, and form an indispensable part of the modern world of thought, politics, and commerce.

370. Wireless telegraphy.—To the men who were struggling to unite continents by electrical conductors the idea that connection for the purposes of communication could be established without any conductors whatever would have seemed an idle dream. Yet this result has been attained by wireless telegraphy. Electrical waves sent broadcast from a transmitting station affect delicate instruments “tuned” to receive them at a distance of thousands of miles, and enable messages to be sent across unsounded seas or untraversed deserts with equal facility. Wireless telegraphy has not displaced the older form, which still is and probably always will be more reliable in operation. For many purposes, however, it is a useful supplement, and for one important use it is an indispensable substitute. Wireless instruments can be established as readily on board ship as on land, and so permit ships to communicate with each other and with the shore. Ships can summon aid in time of emergency, and can regularly keep in touch with their agents so that their movements can be directed to suit the need of markets. In 1914 over 500 wireless stations had been established on land, and nearly ten-fold that number on board ship.

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