ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SEA TRAVEL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 306, 27 December 1937, Page 3

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SEA TRAVEL

THE FIGHT OF STEAM TO OVERCOME SAIL. (By HUGH C. JENKINS). Just one hundred years ago a small business was started in 1 lie city of London which was destined to revolutionise maritime history, for that firm was the beginning of the Croat Peninsular and Orient Company. First the firm of Willcox, and Anderson sought to develop the trade by steamship -with Portugal ami after that to develop the trade with the Cast. Such an enterprise would to-day be regarded with patriotic fervour, but right along the line the efforts of these pioneers of steam travel by sea met with discouragement ami even with unfair treatment. The driving force which sent this great organisation to its present pre-eminence in the world of shipping organisation ■was provided by a succession of remarkable personalities. Brodie AlcChie Willcox and more particularly Arthur Anderson launched the beginnings of this mighty enterprise. Later on Sir Thomas Sutherland became the presiding genius. In recent times the dominating figure of Lord Inchcape carried the consolidation and expansion still further, while to-day his son-in-law, Lord ('raigmyle controls the destinies of the mightiest shipping organisation in the world. To-day the P. and O. and its subsidiaries have ships running on the Seven Seas. Put this organisation is something more than a commercial undertaking, it is the record of achievement against the results of speedy change with the consequent devastating losses of capital. The telling of the following story has been made possible through the researches of Mr. Boyd Cable which have been made public in ihe volume entitled “A Hundred Year History of the P. and O.” (Ivor Nicholson and Watson).

Ship designing has received much notice of late because of the launching of lhe Queen Mary and because

ships’ agents that they could command respect. These two men were Brodie McGhie Willcox and Arthur Anderson, and they had seen a vision, that vision was the potentialities of steam-power as applied to maritime uses. These two foundation personalities are worthy of some study.

in its subsequent runs across the Atlantic Ocean it has broken records. Nearer home the remarkable comfort and achievements of the “Awatea” have brought to the minds of lhe people of Australia and New Zealand new visions of speedy and luxurious travel. To walk an enclosed deck of one of those modern ocean palaces is to forget that one is at sea. I was recently highly amused, during the height, of a severe storm, when a lady was heard to remark, “Why this is ridiculous!" because lhe giggle of the screw was felt. My mind flashed back to twenty-five years ago when, with decks awash, we were running the Eastern down with the Port Aghullas light abeam: I realised that presentday travel-comfort was beyond our wildest dreams of that time. To imagine doing over three hundred miles a day, to be accommodated not in a saloon but in a spacious lounge which would put many hotels to shame, to be entertained by a cinema programme every night, to listen to a band of musicians during the serving of afternoon tea and during dinner, to never feel the wind unless one wanted to do so, to breathe conditioned air, to have hot and cold salt and fresh water always available in one’s private bathroom, to eat ice creams at any time of the day or night, to have filtered water always available, to have an electric fan and a radiator beside one's bed—not bunk—were

“Mr. Willcox was born at Ostend, but of English and Scottish parentage. He spent his boyhood at New-castle-on-Tyne where he received the chief portion of his education. As a young man, without influence and with limited finances, he opened his office in Lime Street, London, and commenced business on his own account as a ship broker and commission agent. This Mr. Wilcox was to come to prominence as a director of the Peninsular Company and as a member of Parliament, but the prominence such as it was, was to be eclipsed by that of the young man who joined him as a clerk in his office.

The young clerk had come to London to try his fortui as had many another penniless lad. He had been born on the inhospitable islands of Shetland near Lewick, on the 19th. of February, 1792, the year in which was declared the Republic of France and which ushered in the era of Napoleon. These happenings on the world stage were destined to affect in an intimate way the career of the child born near Lewick.

I In those unhappy days the Press Gang operated on the seacoasts to maintain the sailors for the British Navy and the seamen and fishermen of the Shetlands were good human material. Their lives were hard and schooling was scanty, consequently Arthur Anderson was put to work at the age of eleven years as a beachboy. A slight education was attained to even under the adverse conditions, but at sixteen years he entered the Navy, eventually becoming captain’s clerk. After Napoleon's abdication Anderson was with his ship’s company paid off at Portsmouth. He tramped to London and arrived there penniless. Finding employment as a copying clerk he subsisted for a year on two* penn orth of bread and a penn’orth of cheese a day with a pint of porter every other day. Throughout this period he maintained a consistent correspondence with his Shetland home at real sacrifice, for a letter cost Is 6d postage, of which he paid half and his parents paid the balance. With Napoleon’s escape from Elba he rejoined the navy again securing the post of captain’s clerk. After the Hundred Days concluding in the Battle of Waterloo, Anderson was again paid off at Portsmouth and again he tramped to London, and again he arrived penniless. Meeting a Mr. Hill and his daughter whom Anderson subsequently married, Anderson was introduced to Willcox, who employed him as a clerk. In the year 1822 Anderson contracted two partnerships, one matrimonial, the other commercial, with Mr. Willcox, his employer. The Peninsular Trade. Steam sea travel seems to have been established first between Dublin and > English ports. At the close of the Napoleonic Wars i Willcox and Anderson had established I a business operating small sailing ships to the ports of the Spanish

things not even comprehended by the --•traveller on a cargo steamer of a of a century ago, whereas now all of these things are accepted without thought. The speed of accomplishment has been very great, nevertheless even now I cannot but regard the Niagara as an up-to-date boat merely from force of thoughthabit. And yet this development has been going on for a whole century. Let us look back along this long period and see what have been the viscissitudes and the adventures of those who have been engaged in putting this mighty network of service round the world.

In the dim distance of history man learned to harness the winds for the propulsion of ships, but having accomplished that art there was not much more to learn. The rigging could be altered to suit varying conditions, but from the days of the Phaorahs to the American clippers racing home with their burdens of tea from Old Cathay fundamentally sailing remained the same. Then came steam. The fashioning of engines capable of propelling ships was a long job. At first those engines were depressingly inefficient while the amount of fuel which they consumed was tremendous. Gradually, however, the engineers came to make to themselves many inventions and at long last lhe engine capable of assisting the ship was an accomplished fact. It was a long time, however before the use of sails was dispensed with. The Pioneers. A hundred years ago two enterpris- i Ing men in the City of London had ‘ sufficiently established themselves as

Peninsular. When an insurrection I against the Queen of Portugal broke cut the London firm decided to help her. They bought a schooner which had stranaed near Dover, salved her and fitted her out more or less as a warship and sent her on a gunrunning expedition to Portugal, and when the insurrection collapsed the firm stood well with the Court at Lisbon. Immediately followed another gambio at lung ..-ids. When Don Carlos challeneged the Queen of Spain fori the throne ot that country the firm again sided with the Queen, chartering and running ships to her. They fitted out the “Royal Tar" whicn carried the British Legion for service ir Spain. It is io be seen that intervention is nothing new insofar as Spain is concerned.

These two episodes, however, opened the way for the establishing of a regular traa? wlb the Peninsular. This was accompl :< -hed by the tour.-i--ing of the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company. Early Steam Travel. These small steamers whi.ni plied lhe Spanish trade appear to oe more like toys to modern minds. Th® William Fawcett was oi 206 gruss tonnage and 60 horse-power. The Royal Tar was a great advance on the first ship for it had a tonnage of 308 tons and was equipped with 260 horsepower. The earliest regular service between England and the Peninsular appears to have been established in 1926. By 1835 Willcox was well established in the business and in 1837 the steamships were carrying mails. But there was no contract for the carrying of mails, the Post Office evidently using the steamers as supplementary to the Sail Packet Services from Falmouth.

At that time the comany was up-to-date, for it had models of the ships made to enable would-be passengers to decide on their accomodation, a complaint book was a novelty, and invalids were recommended to winter in Madiera. Trade, however, was insufficient to sustain this line of six steamers and a crisis developed. It became imperative if lhe Line was to survive that the mail service contracts should be secured. The Packet Ship Service. Despite the coming of steam Falmouth was kept as the port of departure. Falmouth was the best port for sailing ships but there was no reason to cling to it for steam because steamships could get out of the Channel no matter which way the wind blew. The Falmouth Packets, however, were hired by the Post Office, nominally from the commanders, but actually through them from private syndicates or owners. When a packet was captured or sunk by the enemy during the Napoleonic and other wars the owner lodged a sworn “protest" and was paid by the Post Office the value of the ship. The members of the crew were employed and paid by the Post Office. In the Packet Port the Post Office agent was supposed to guard the Postmaster-General's interests, to see that full crews were employed, and that no goods for sale at foreign ports were carried and that the ship was properly and well founded.

“The whole system" writes Boyd Cable “became rotten with corruption and jobbery—and worse. The captain or Commander, if he could satisfy the Post Office agent he had good reasons for health or anything else for staying ashore, could send his ship to sea without a single competent navigator. The agent, too, often held shares in the ship, or had a “private venture" of goods aboard, or had friendly or family relations with the commander. How readily he would accept the captain's reasons for staying ashore and recommend these as good is instanced in a minute by the Postmaster-General in 1793 that “There are now 12 packets at sea, and no less than 10 captains of them are ashore." Again in 1798, the Post-master-General in reply to an application by a captain to stay ashore, wrote that this captain had “been absent from duty during many years, assigning no other cause than lhe death of his mother in 1792."

crews—through the insurance companies. "The simple method was for all aboard to ship some private goods for sail abroad, to sell these, to send home the proceeds in bank drafts or letters of credit; and then if the ship was captured homeward bound, to claim on the insurance company for the value of the goods bought from the proceeds of sale of the outward cargo. "The clamour of the merchants, whose mails were always, according to regulation weighted and sunk before the ship struck and surrendered, led to a close investigation. The result was startling.

“But worse malpractices grew out of permitting the packets to carry goods for sale in foreign or home ports. This was from the first institution of the packet service, prohibited but officially winked at or even condoned by the Postmaster-General in official minutes requiring agents to see that cargo was not so heavy or so stowed as to interfere with the trim, sailing or handling of the ship. “The natural result was that every packet sailed with every ounce of cargo she could collect, the goods being owned by captain, officers, crew, and private shore venturers and merchantmen. Large profits resulted and ‘a good time was had by all’ concerned. Worse followed from this illegal trade . “The merchants whose first and vital concern was in the safe carriage of their letters, began to notice that ship after ship was captured by privateers (especially American) on the homeward passage, while very few were taken outward bound, investigation followed their protests and agitation, proved to the hilt that these captures handsomely paid the ships’

“The crew of packet attacked by a privateer refused to work the ship, and went below when the captain would have fought his ship with every hope of success and escape. Another packet, chased by an enemy for some daylight hours, struck her flag at dusk, although the enemy was a mile off, and had not even fired a gun demanding surrender. Then, lest the enemy had not seen the flag hauled down, the ship was hove to and the captain sent off a boat to inform the privateer of the surrender. "It was proved that eight of those seamen who had refused to work ship, and so allowed her to be captured, had previously received value for insured goods in other ships in which they had been "captured.” In the case of the other packet which had hove to and surrendered at dusk, the surgeon who had urged the captain to surrender, had been captured three times before, and nad been heavily insured against loss of the private goods he carried. The ship's steward claimed that he had taken out goods, failed to sell them, had lost them by capture on the homeward passage, for the fourth time and had been paid £250. Three fo’csle hands had been captured on this passage for the fourth time, and one of them received £2OO on the last "loss”—previous amounts not discovered. "In 1810 and 1814 the packetmen went on strike for more pay. This proved to be the last straw on the patience of the Post Office and the public. Wilcox and Anderson naturally exploited the discontent with this rotten situation. (To be Continued.'

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