tag Atlantic Steam Navigation. 163 
cad first position, these scientific champions have encamped 
n another, confident that their position is impregnable. They 
‘ Ae admit, because they cannot now deny, that it is practica- 
ble to navigate the Atlantic by steam ships; but they contend 
that the ships will not pay a profit to the proprietors. This is a 
question worthy of a minute and careful investigation. A fair 
and impartial inquiry may place the matter in so clear a point of 
view, that the plainest understanding will comprehend it. No 
doubt those who possess the most practical information on the 
subject, have nursed it for their own benefit, whilst those w 
not confined to narrow thought and selfish views, and who would 
give some light to the understanding of others, have it not them- 
selves to give. 
_ Whatever article of produce or manufacture can be ehelll 
or imported in a sailing ship, at a remunerating freight, can be 
exported or imported in a steam ship at a greater or equal profit, 
independently of passengers. To elucidate this proposition, which 
I am aware the public mind is scarcely prepared to credit, it is 
necessary to a into some ie datuils of the some. poms of steam 
and sailing shi 
-It will be Seine’ in mina, Rare in constructing a steam ship for 
commercial purposes, . indepanidenthy of passengers, the expense 
will be much less, and the capacity for stowage much greater, 
than when both objects are combined. 
If we build a steam ship of 2500 tons measurement, her capa~ 
city for stowing, exclusive of engines and fuel, will not be less 
than 1600 tons register;* equal to 2400 tons of measurement 
goods, of 40 cubie feet to the ton. A sailing ship of 400 tons 
register, upon the same scale of capacity, would take 600 tons of 
Measurement 
For the sake of calculation, I -ii take the oie of New Orleans 
and Liverpool for the points of the ship’s destination. I do not 
specify New Orleans as a more desirable port than any other in 
the United States for steam navigation, although I believe the 
commerce between that port and Europe may be carried on with 
singular facility and profit, especially as the Western Islands, Ber- 
muda and Jamaica, offer natural stations for depéts of coal, and 
its vicinity to the Mexican territories opens a wide field for the 
 seaaantesd of South American commerce with that of the Uni-— 
* By a recent act of Parliament, the engine and coal, rooms are deducted from 
the —_ measurement, and the remaizider i is the legal register tonnage. 
