CHAPTER XV.

SEA AND OCEAN STEAMERS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD.

There is now hardly any part of the world touched by salt water that cannot be reached by steamer; wherever there is sufficient commerce to give promise of remuneration a steam line is sure to be established. Most of the European governments support lines of steamers by subsidies in the shape of mail contracts; in this way they have built up a mercantile marine, comprising thousands of ships that plow the waves in all directions and spread their flags wherever the breezes blow. Commerce has been developed by the steamship, and one after another the subsidized lines have created a trade that has enabled them to take care of themselves, or will thus enable them as the years roll on. The steamer is one of the links to unite the nations, and the familiar intercourse that it creates is a sure promotor of universal peace.

Of transatlantic lines there are many; it is impossible to give the exact number for the reason that new ones may be created or old ones suspended during the time this volume is passing through the press. On the American coast the ports of Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans are served by transatlantic steam lines; New York alone has a dozen (roughly stated) and several of the others have each two or three. The ports on the other side of the Atlantic that are thus connected with the United States are Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol, Hull, Southampton, Hamburg, Bremen, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Havre, and Bordeaux. The Liverpool steamers touch at Queenstown, both going and returning, so that the latter port has an almost daily communication with America by steam without herself owning a single ship. There are lines between New York and the ports of the Mediterranean, with a service more or less regular. In the fruit season there is more activity in their movements, and their numbers are greater than when the oranges have ceased to be gathered and the lemon has been squeezed. Occasionally there is a steamer for ports on the Baltic, and not many years ago there was a line to Stettin and another to Amsterdam. They may be revived any day, and new lines may come into existence while yet we are talking about them.

Thus far there are no regular lines of steamers between the Atlantic coast of the United States and the ports of Asia. One of the New York and Liverpool companies has a line to Bombay and can send passengers and freight all the way by its own ships, with a transfer in Liverpool. In the tea season steamers come from China to New York by way of the Suez Canal, bringing cargoes of the herb that forms our breakfast beverage, but they do not return by the way they came; from China to New York they make a direct voyage, but on the return journey to the Land of the Celestials they take cargoes for Liverpool, London, or any other port that offers. Most of these ships are specially designed for freighting purposes, and their passenger accommodations are limited; some of them are noted for their speed, though they rarely make as rapid progress as the crack vessels of the transatlantic lines.

The great majority of the steam lines everywhere are under the English flag; of the transatlantic companies only one is American, but not all of its ships are of American build. Of the two great companies that connect Europe with the far East one is French and the other English; there are two smaller companies connecting England with China, both of them English, and there are occasional irregular ships, all of the same nationality. Without attempting statistical exactness it is safe to say that of the ocean steamers that link the different parts of the world together at least nine out of every ten are British.

We have already glanced at the steamship service in waters adjacent to Europe; let us now look away to the East.

There is an average of fully four steamers a week from Europe to Alexandria, Egypt, and in the winter season the number is greater. The lines are English, French, Austrian, and Italian, with a semi-monthly Russian and an occasional craft of some other nationality. Some of these steamers end their journey at Alexandria and return thence to Europe, while others proceed to Asia by way of the Suez Canal. The steamers touching at Alexandria form but a small part of those that use the Suez Canal; the traffic through that artificial highway has steadily increased, from year to year, until it now amounts to 120 ships a month, or four per day. Nearly all the craft that pass through the Canal are steamers, as it has not been found profitable for sailing ships to make the voyage up or down the Red Sea, with its treacherous winds and dangerous navigation. It is probable that within the next decade the number of steamers passing the Canal will be not less than 200 per month, and many persons familiar with the subject predict an increase still greater.

From Suez the steamers follow the narrow track of the Red Sea, where the sun pours down its pitiless rays and causes the panting traveler to absorb copiously of beverages that cool if they do not inebriate. From the Straits of Bab-el-Mandel (Gate of Tears) the routes diverge; one tends northward and eastward to the Persian Gulf and the rivers that flow into it, while another heads almost due east to Bombay. The route of the Persian Gulf is served by an English company, while that of Bombay can boast of three or four English lines, an Austrian line, and an Italian one, not to mention the many irregular steamers on the hunt for chance cargoes and passengers. A hundred miles from the entrance of the Red Sea is the verdureless Rock of Aden, where British enterprise has established a port and coaling station. Most of the regular lines make a halt there, and it has been found in practice that Aden is an important point of divergence. Some of the English companies have a service down the east coast of Africa as far as the Cape of Good Hope, and the French have a line to Seychelles, Mauritius, and Reunion.

The majority of the steamers going east from Aden head for Pointe de Galle, at the southern extremity of Ceylon. Here they diverge again, some going to Calcutta, some to Australia, around its southern coast, a few to Burmah, and the rest to Singapore, at the Straits of Malacca.

From Singapore there are various routes for the ships that have followed each other from Pointe de Galle. Northward go some to the capital of Siam, less northerly others to Cochin China, and others to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Yokohama, and the different ports of the Celestial Empire, and the Land of the Mikado. Others turn southward from Singapore to Java, and there is a line between Singapore and Australia, by way of Java and Torres Straits, following the northern coast of the great island instead of its southern one. Irregular ships go to Borneo and around Sumatra, and there is a Spanish line that unites Singapore with the Philippine Islands.

From Japan and China to Europe there is a regular mail service each way once a week, and the arrivals and departures can be relied upon very nearly like those of railway trains. One week it is performed by the French steamers, and the next by the English, and so it goes on, from the year's beginning to the year's ending. The smaller lines of steamers add materially to the opportunities for a traveler between Europe and the far East, and it may be fairly stated that at all times of the year there are two steamers a week each way, while during the tea season there are double that number. When the new crop of teas comes in there is generally a race between two or more steamers from China to London; the shortest passage thus far recorded was made in thirty-seven days from Shanghai to the docks at London by one of these tea steamers, and her competitor was only a few hours behind her.

An English company skirts the coast of India and Ceylon from Bombay to Calcutta with weekly steamers each way; it sends its ships northward from Bombay to Kurrachee, Bushire, and up the Tigris as far as Bagdad, and from Calcutta it sends them to Burmah, the Straits of Malacca, and Singapore. There is a Chinese line from Rangoon to Singapore, touching the principal ports of Burmah and the Straits, and there is a Chinese line and a Siamese one also, connecting Singapore with Bangkok every four or five days. The Dutch owners of Java have a line from Amsterdam to Batavia twice a month each way, touching Gibraltar, Naples, and Suez, and they have several lines around the Java seas, to communicate with the Spice Islands, and enable them to keep a watchful eye over their possessions. About once a month they send a steamer to Melbourne and Sidney by way of Torres Straits, and they send a ship every week around the coast of Sumatra. The coast of China is well served by English lines, and in the last few years by a Chinese one, composed of ships purchased of foreigners. In the same way there is a Japanese company that navigates the waters around the Mikado's Empire, and also connects the Japanese ports with Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Yang-tse, the great river of China, is navigated by a Chinese company and an English one, the former being equipped with steamers built in the United States, and the latter with boats constructed in England, after the American model.

The ports of Australia and New Zealand are connected by local lines, and there are two or more lines of steamers that ply between Australia and England; from England to Australia the route is by the Cape of Good Hope, but on the return voyage the ships go through the Suez Canal, in consequence of the peculiar course of the trade-winds. On their outward passage they touch at the Cape of Good Hope, and thus come in competition with the lines that have been established between England and South Africa. The regular service is weekly, and performed by two companies, making alternate departures.

Coming back to Europe, we will turn our eyes toward the west once more. There is an English line running to the West Indies, touching the principal ports as far as Aspinwall, where they connect with the steamers of another English line from Panama to the Straits of Magellan. Three French lines perform nearly a similar service, one going from Saint Nazaire to Aspinwall, a second from Saint Nazaire to Vera Cruz, and a third from Havre and Bordeaux to Aspinwall. All these lines touch at ports on the way, and one of them has a branch to Cayenne; the departures each way in each direction are monthly, while that of the English one is fortnightly. Another French line goes to Brazil and La Plata, touching at the French colony of Senegal, on the African coast, and there are two Italian lines from Naples and Genoa that cover the same route, but without visiting Senegal. There are two other French lines to the east coast of South America, and two or three English ones, so that the traveler in either direction will have plenty of ships to choose from. Then there are local lines all along the coast, and there is an English line through the Straits of Magellan, and up the west coast of South America as far as Callao, not to be confounded with the one already mentioned from Panama southward. Besides these there is a Spanish company plying between Cadiz and Havana, and a Portuguese one from Lisbon to Brazil.

We have almost girdled the world in our observations of steamships, and may now return to New York. The advertising columns of the leading dailies will tell all about the numerous local lines that skirt our coast as far South as Vera Cruz and Aspinwall, and they may or may not tell us of a line from New York to Rio de Janeiro flying the American flag. Several lines of this kind have been established, but they have never been of long duration, as the cost of maintaining them is greater than the receipts, and the United States government refuses to adopt the English policy of sustaining steam lines by permanent mail contracts. As this page is being written such a line is in full operation; its permanency is to be most devoutly hoped, but hopes will not always pay the expense of running a steamship. An English line connects New York with Brazil, but does it in a roundabout way; the steamers go from England to Brazil, carrying cargoes of English manufactures, thence they take cargoes of coffee and other South American produce to New York, and at the latter port they load for home with whatever freight is offering.

Between San Francisco and Japan and China there are two lines of steamers; both are under American management, and the ships of one are of American build while those of the other are leased from English owners. The service is semi-monthly, divided between the two companies, and the broad Pacific is traversed in about twenty days. There is a coasting line from San Francisco to Panama, and there are two coast lines going north to Oregon and British Columbia. An American line runs from San Francisco once a month to the Sandwich Islands, and the Feejees to New Zealand, and there connects with the local steamers to Australia.

Here we are at the point we reached by steamer from Europe, and may pause awhile to consider other matters. We have seen the North Star and the Southern Cross, the pine and palm; blasts from high latitudes have chilled our limbs, and we have been faint and suffering under the terrible heat of the equator. But our tireless steamer bears us on and on, indifferent whether it breathes the airs of the tropics or the poles; its pulseless limbs are never wearied so long as we supply its digestive and respiratory organs with their needed aliments. The steamer has destroyed the poetry of the ocean, but it has been a material force in bringing peace on earth and good will to men.