SHIPPING FORTUNES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 246, 8 June 1932, Page 3

SHIPPING FORTUNES

RACING CLIPPERS PALMY DAYS OF SEA TRADING NOW SO FAR ASTERN. INDIA'S LARGE PROFITS. Those who live in the shipping world to-day may well think enviously of the palmy days of shipping now so far astern (writes Boyd Cahle in tne Manchester Gnardian). It is true that in our own times shipping has had its turns of prosperity and many firms made fair-sized fortunes — which many have since, alas, seen dwindle sadly or even vanish completely. But even these prosperous times cannot compare with those of the past, when they meant not only good profits for owners, but the happiest of times and best of pay for officers and men and a national pride and prestige in ships and seamen that has not been equalled since. It was in the days of sail that the happiest times were known in shipping. Before steam and the Suez Canal between them killed the China clippers that trade gave good money, and the keen sporting interest of the tea races made the times memorable In the 1860's freight from China ran about £5 a ton, and a clipper carried up to 1200 tons. Huge crews of picked seamen were carried, and good and resolutely hard-driving officers. won quiclc promotion. Those good days merged into other s of the Australian gold-rush period of the. 'fifties, with big passage mone> from the outward hound goldseekers, and high freights for cargoes added to the profits of a run up to China and the fiercely-contested, highly-paid "racing home the tea." . For the first time in generations, British el:rpers more than held their own against the . American. The Thermopylae made a run to Melbourne of 60 days from pilot to pilot, which stands as a sail record of this day, and the 'best day's run of the tea clippers was ihe 363 miles of Cutty Sark— which, hy the way, is the only clipper afloat to-day, thanks to the patriotic action of a British captain who bought her back to the Driish flag and keeps her moored in Falmouth harbour, as a perfect and beautiful memoriai of the great days of sail. Gold-Rush to California. But the prosperity of sail in those days of the Australian-China runs was a mere nothing to that of the gold-rush in Caiifornia in "the '49" and following years. The whole world then went crazy to get to the goldfields and dig up a fortune a day from the golden sands. Passage money and freight rates went soaring. Some of the Californian clippers earned the cost of their very expensive building in a single voyage to San Francisco. They wero some of the finest tbips ever built; they were navigated and sailed as magnificently as ships ever have been, and on the outward passage were driven round tiie Horn . against tn* ccnstant, shriekmg, freezmg head-wind gales fiercely and resolutely. The men were well paid, but earned every penny of their £40 a month. lr was not easy to find enough good seamen to man the expanding fieet, and because every blackguard in the world was anxious to work a passage to the goldfields their lawless indiscipline was kept from hreaking into mutiny and murder by merciless hazing and hard driving, and the boot-and-fist, mankilier "bucko mate" evolved _ to meet the very real need of beating brute force with hrute force. But the palm of palmy days in shipping must go to an era still farther back, to the times and service of the Honourable East India Company, especially in the 1790's and first decades of 1800. The Indiamen were rOomy, solidly built craft, and were run entirely for comfort and safety, without regard to speed or cost of a passage. They carried huge crews, who had the best of food, liberal grog, and every encouragement to sing, dance and hold high jollification m the dog watches. The ships carried thirty to forty passengers, and it was a first consideration that they shoild enjoy a comfortable and happy ship. Taken Irt. Every evening, no matter how fine the weather, royals, stuns'ls aild all light sails were taken in, and at any sign of rough weather the ship would he shortened down to tops'ls; and if it blew really hard she would he hove to and the storm ridden out with the driest possible decks. A regular farmyard of live stock was carried — cows, pigs, sheep, and poultry — and a cap . tain was always at liberty to touch at any land he liked and restock fresh provisions. The huge pay and "perks" of the officers and their high social standing attracted the endeavours of the best families in the land to place their sons as midshipmen. The generous treatment of the crews also brought the pick of seamen to the fieet. Every man who had served eight years was entitled to a pension for life, and the wives and children of any killed or iucapacitated were liberally provided for. Captains and mates made fortunes from the "indulgence" granted them. A captain was allowed 56 tons of cargo space, and might either claim its freight value or fill it with goods for his private trading, the company lending him the cash for such purchase. In the 1790's the freight rates were £35 to £45 or even £50 a ton so that at the low average of £40 the 56 tons was worth £2240 on the outward and again on the homeward passage. But almost invariably the space was used for private goods and brought in much larger profits. The captain also had a percentage of the whole value of' cargo carried, and all the passage money of passengers, which ran from about £100 for a subaltern, £250 for a general, and higher : nounts for important merchants and officia'ls, their wives and families. One way and another, a captain made from £5000 to £10,000 s year fairly and honestly, and a good many made still more by a bit of quiet smuggling. The mates also were handsomely treated, having 40 tons of cargo space amongst thein, worth at least £3000 on the out and home passages at freight rates and double that if they bought and sold well in private trading. Their cabin fare was of the best, and they had unlimited wines, beer, and spirits provided free. The owners, of course, were the old "John Company," and it is doubtful if any owners before or since so con-

sistently earned fortunes from their ships. Extravagant as were the pay and indulgences granted officers and men, they were a mere drop out of the bucket of the profits earned in the company's monopoly of trade.