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Thebe is at last a very excellent prospect of a long-cherished project being successfully carried out—that of uniting England and Victoria by steamships of large size and great power, travelling by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and making thp run in from forty to forty-five days. The distance of Melbourne from Southampton, by the Red Sea and Straits of Gibraltar route, is 11,875 miles, and by way of the Cape, in the track usually followed by sailing vessels and steamships which do not call at Table Bay, it is as nearly as possible the same, and would be shortened by full-powered steamers which, in place of crossing the Equator between 18° and 28° west, would follow the old route of the East India Company’s liners, which made the best way they could across the Gulf of Guinea, calling at Ascension, St. Helena, and Cape Town. The difficulty, until very lately, was the non-existence of steamships capable of carrying coal for the voyage, with a sufficient amount of cargo, and accommodation for passengers extensive enough, to make the business pay. When the first experiment was made by placing the Great Britain in the trade, on the breaking out of the rush from England to the Victorian goldfields, she carried but little canvas, and trusting to steam alone, she was unable to makq. headway against the south-east trades, and was forced back, when within a few days’ steaming of Table Bay, to St. Helena, to replenish her stock of coals. On her next voyage, she was transformed into a full and powerfully-rigged ship, carrying an enormous spread of canvas ; she followed, from that • time, the course which was most likely to give her favorable winds, altogether avoiding places of call ; and it was then for the first time the public of England became familiar with the announcement, placarded all over England, “Steam from Liverpool to Melbourne in sixty days.” But in those times, the compound engine had not long boon invented. Ships fitted with Messrs. Randolph and Elder’s engines on that principle had boon at work for some time in the Pacific, on tho coasts of Ohili and Peru, and tho enormous saving they wore effecting in tho consumption of coal, added to tho additional profit derivable from tho extra passenger and cargo accommodation, was beginning to attract attention on tho Clyde. The Groat Britain’s consumption of fuel was never loss than between five and six hundred tons of coal per voyage, to secure even in calm weather tho moderate rate of nine knots per hour; and she never sailed from tho Mersey with less than from seven to eight hundred tons of tho best Welsh coal on board, and she now ships tho same quantity of Now South Wales coal for tho return passage. Tho space she can give up for cargo, large as tho ship is, is so small, comparatively, that her voyages have only paid moderately, and sometimes not at all, when her cabins have not boon fully occupied. The Groat Britain on various occasions, by tho help of “tho bravo westerly winds” in running down her easting, accomplished tho passage from Liverpool to Hobson’s Bay in fifty-five or fifty-six days, and on ono voyage succeeded in making tho passage in about fifty-three days, beating her much more modern rival, the Northumberland, by half-

an-hour. Now the fastest runs the London and Melbourne steamers make is from fifty to fifty-one days ; and it is only in the season when easterly winds prevail along the south coast of Australia that these vessels attempt the western passage homewards, so that communication with the Cape of Good Hope from Australia is intermittent, and the regular mails from New Zealand and Australia for the Cape have to be sent to England and transhipped there. It was the opinion of the late Captain Gray, however, that with a ship large enough, and powerful enough to be independent of the winds, there was no reason whatever why the duration of the voyage should not be reduced to forty-five days ; and the correctness of that opinion has now boon proved. Ho had himself repeatedly made the run from the meridian of the Cape to Melbourne in from nineteen to twenty days ; and the Cape steamers now regularly make the voyage from a channel port to Capo Town in twenty-five days, and have accomplished it more than once under twenty-two days. The Mongol, on her voyage to New Zealand, was in the parallel of Melbourne on the forty-fifth or fortysixth day out. Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co., the Liverpool agents of the Company by whom the Great Britain is owned, 'became so convinced of the possibility of accomplishing the trip within forty-five days that during the last five or six years they have made repeated efforts to float a company whoso ships should so shorten the time of the Australian voyage. Those efforts failed, because the Great Britain, from her great consumption of coal and comparative want of speed under steam—though otherwise a favorite and fortunate ship—had become somewhat of a White Elephant on their hands. Her purchase was always a condition in the proposed arrangements, and on that account the new schemes successively broke down. Another company, however, has now been formed under the auspices of Messrs. Gibbs, Bright and Co., in which that obstacle no longer exists. The object of the Anglo-Australian Steam Navigation Company, now formed in England, is to build or purchase ships which shall reduce the voyage to one of forty or iorty-ti vo days. They are backed by the Great Wester" Railway Company, who are anxious to ',/liso the fine harbor of Milford Haven, which is now not only connected with London and Bristol by the Great Western and South Wales linos, but has been brought into immediate communication with the Midland counties, and the whole north, oast, and west of England, and Scotland, by the North-Western and Midland Counties lines, which have been carried through the centre of South Wales. The Company appears to be a powerful one, and they have begun their work in a very practical way. Before asking assistance in the shape of a subsidy from any of the Colonial Governments —and Victoria has been pledged for some years to give substantial aid to such an enterprise—they have determined to make a series of quick passages, to accomplish which no expense will be spared. They have purchased, as their pioneer ship, the Iberia, a vessel just launched on the Clyde, and which on her trial trip logged over sixteen knots per hour. The Iberia is a vessel considerably exceeding four hundred feet in length, and measuring between four and five thousand tons. Her engines are on the compound principle, and she will carry her own fuel for the homeward as well as the outward voyage, thus effecting a considerable saving in the cost of her fuel. The Iberia will probably reach Melbourne within a month from this date, and as an average speed of fourteen knots would reduce the time of the voyage to thirtysix days, four days may be allowed for calls and stoppages by the way, and yet the run would be accomplished in forty days. The Livonia, a sister ship to the Iberia, has also been purchased by the Anglo-Australian Company, and arrangements are reported to have been made for. the purchase or building of other ships to complete the fleet necessary to maintain communication at short intervals.

The voyage of the Iberia successfully accomplished within the time specified, the question will be whether an effort cannot be made to induce the Company to extend the trip of their ships to a New Zealand port. There would bo difficulty at first, no doubt, as the direct trade of New Zealand with Britain is still comparatively in its infancy. It is, however, a sturdy child, and is growing not only fast but healthily. By and bye its importance will bo better understood, and as we can promise a considerable number of emigrants as passengers, and as the AugloAustralian Company are not likely to limit themselves to a Melbourne trade if a profitable business can bo done by lengthening the voyage of their ships by 1200 miles, or say three and a-half days’ steaming, they may bo found not indisposed to include New Zealand in their plans.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18740619.2.8

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4133, 19 June 1874, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,393

Untitled New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4133, 19 June 1874, Page 2

Untitled New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4133, 19 June 1874, Page 2

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