Note 90 — Chapter VII

There belonged, in round numbers, to the United Kingdom and her colonies and possessions on the 1st January, 1875, 7,500,000 tons of merchant vessels: of these about 2,000,000 tons were steam vessels; and as each of these will perform the work of four sailing vessels, it may be said that we now possess in our merchant service an equivalent to 13,500,000 registered tons of sailing shipping, so that in twenty-five years we have more than trebled Admiral Martin’s highest estimate.