1891-92. ] NOTE ON OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. 165 
NOTE ON OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. 
By SANDFORD FLEMING, LL.D., C.M.G., ETC. 
(Read 17th December, 1592.) 
I ask your permission to offer some remarks on a subject which can- 
not fail to command the attention of the members of the Institute. 
Weare all familiar with the wonderful development of that service, 
which has brought countries widely separated by the sea, into nearer and 
closer relationship. We have had our attention directed to the further 
development of ocean steamships and likewise to projected “ fast lines ” 
to Europe, which, by abridging the period of the Atlantic voyage, are 
designed to bring the two continents into closer intercourse. 
I do not doubt that in due time these projects will in some form be 
carried out with the gratifying result that they will tend to advance 
Canada among the nations by more firmly establishing her position on 
the highway of the world’s commerce. 
It is not my present purpose to dwell at any length on the possibilities 
of the future with regard to the application of steam machinery to the 
navigation of the ocean. My immediate object is to revert for a moment 
to the infancy of our present steam marine, to go back to the day when 
the first steam-ship started on her voyage across the Atlantic, when the 
passage between America and Europe by the agency of steam power 
was regarded as an experiment. 
Sixty years ago the voyage was made by sailing ships. The fathers of 
many of us could have testified how long, how tedious and how trying the 
voyage then was, for it occupied frequently from one to two months. 
In modern times the trip across the Atlantic is reduced to a single 
week, for indeed by some of the best steam-ships it is generally 
accomplished in less than seven days, and we are encouraged to 
believe that before many years the passage will be made in a still 
shorter period. 
A few weeks back the Engineering Society of Liverpool had the sub- 
ject under examination, and it was then brcught out in discussion that 
the Atlantic had been crossed by steam-ships no less than 3,800 times 
within the twelve months ending the Ist of October last, being on an 
average more than ten departures, that is five from each side, per day for 
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