Note 366 — Chapter XI

Mr. Alfred Holt is the third son of my old friend, the late Mr. George Holt of Liverpool. He is an engineer by profession, having served his apprenticeship to Mr. Edward Woods, the engineer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Afterwards, he became the inspecting engineer of my steamers and of those of others; and when he himself, in time, became the owner of steam-ships, in partnership with his brother, Mr. Philip H. Holt, he showed what knowledge, practically gained, could achieve, and, thoroughly beating his old employers by the production of the vessels to which I refer, he now ranks high, and deservedly high, among the great shipowners of his native town. Though he has no claim to be considered the inventor of the compound engine, for that is almost as old, in one form or another, as the present century; he was the first to apply the principle on long oversea voyages. The ships of the Pacific Company had, it is true, that description of engine in use before him, but only in those of their ships engaged in the coasting trade of the Pacific. Mr. Holt’s steamers were consequently the first to show the advantages to be derived from the compound principle on such voyages as those from England to Mauritius, a distance of 8500 miles without stopping, then a marvellous performance; and it was, only, from the time he thus practically demonstrated the great value of such engines, that they have been generally adopted.