Note 406 — Chapter XIV

It was not until 1850, when the English Navigation Laws were repealed, that any material advance was made by the shipowners of Great Britain in the improvement of their vessels. In that year, when they were in a very desponding state, seeing nothing before them but “ruin,” the result, as they conceived, of an entirely free-trade policy, the author had the hardihood to order to be built, for his own use in the trade between London, Australia, and India, six ships, each of an average size of eight hundred tons register, and with a capacity of from eleven hundred to fourteen hundred tons, according to the nature of the cargo. The crew of each of these vessels consisted of the master, first and second officers, steward, cook, boatswain, carpenter, sail-maker, seventeen seamen, and five apprentices, or thirty “all told;” a very great difference, as will be seen, in the capacity and current expenditure, but no great advance in the proportionate dimensions, for the length was only one hundred and forty-five feet to a beam of thirty-one feet, and twenty-two feet depth of hold. Such was the popular prejudice even then among British shipowners against any material increase in the length. The impression had prevailed for centuries that a long ship must be weak, and a narrow one dangerous, from her “liability to capsize;” and no amount of argument would convince the old school of shipowners to the contrary. At last the author, anxious to practically test this question, built in 1853, contrary to the advice of numerous well-meaning friends, an iron sailing ship, which in length measured close upon seven times the width of her beam. Such a “monstrous” deviation from “established rules,” and that, too, in a “tin kettle,” the name by which the comparatively few iron ships then built were familiarly known, created considerable discussion, mingled with many gloomy forebodings as to the result. The ship, when finished, loaded in London and sailed, with a general cargo and her full complement of passengers, for Australia. She encountered rough weather, and meeting with some slight accident, had to anchor in the Downs for repair. The captain, officers, and crew were fully satisfied with the strength, safety, and good sea-going qualities of the ship; but after this trivial accident the popular outcry against her became so strong that the author recalled her, and despatched the passengers to their destination in another vessel. Though his pecuniary loss was very considerable, he resolved to make it rather than encounter the howl of indignation which must have arisen had he sent the ship to sea and any disaster befallen her, which might have happened to any other ship, whereby the lives of the passengers were lost or placed in jeopardy. The crew remained by her. No alteration whatever was made in her construction. She proceeded almost immediately afterwards, with a full cargo of general merchandise, to Bombay, and on her return the captain reported that he never sailed in a finer or safer sea-going vessel. Such vessels are now very common, and many of them, especially steamers, are much more extreme in length in proportion to their beam.—So much for popular prejudice.