110 THE SEA. 



Cunard became more firmly established than ever, and entered on that career of prosperity 

 which has been the most remarkable of any in the long- list of steam-ship lines. Its 

 fleet consisted of forty-nine vessels in 1875, running not merely on the Atlantic service, 

 but to Mediterranean and other ports. A competent authority puts the money value of 

 the ships at about seven millions sterling. In the ocean line the crews are engaged for 

 a single voyage out and home. The company shipped and discharged during the year 

 ending July 1st, 1872, 43,000 men, which means that they continuously employed about 

 8,600 persons on their ships. About 1,500 men find regular employment in loading and 

 unloading the steam-ships, and from 500 to 1,500 more are engaged at the docks of the 

 company in Liverpool in fitting and refitting these vessels. " Hence the company, although 

 a private enterprise in the hands of only three families, is entitled to rank with the 

 great railway and other public companies as an employer of labour/'* The Cunard Company, 

 in 1861, enrolled a regiment of Volunteer Artillery (the llth Lancashire) 500 strong, 

 composed entirely of their own employes, and they have always shown much public spirit in 

 Liverpool in the promotion of schools, asylums, and other provident and charitable institutions 

 for the seamen's benefit. During the Crimean war, and in 1801, when the friendly relations 

 between Great Britain and America were put in jeopardy by the forcible arrest of Messrs, 

 Mason and Slidell, when on board the Royal Mail steamer Trent, the resources of the 

 company were put into requisition for the conveyance of troops and stores. Their two- 

 largest ships, the Bothnia and Scythia, each of 4,535 tons burden, have saloons where 300 

 persons can dine at one time, while their decks afford an unbroken promenade, for passengers, 

 of 425 feet. 



The wonderful exemption from shipwreck and casualties, which is the just pride of 

 this company, is due to the admirable discipline and order enforced. Take the following 

 description of life on the Bothnia as detailed in the columns of our leading journal : " The 

 Bothnia carries ten boats, which are capable of containing her full complement of people ;. 

 and she has a crew of 150 officers and men, all told, divided into the three classes of seamen, 

 engineers and firemen, and stewards. It has always been part of the Cunard Company's 

 system that every man, whatever his duties on board the ship, should be a member of 

 some particular boat's crew, and that the crew of each boat should be formed from all 

 three of the classes which have been mentioned. ... As soon as all are on board, 

 each man is informed to which boat he is attached, and who is the commanding officer 

 of that boat, and each boat's officer is expected to know every member of his boat's crew. 

 In order to prevent mistakes, each man wears a metal badge, with a brooch-fastening, 

 which bears the number of his boat," and so forth. Before the passengers are on board, 

 there is an inspection, the crew being drawn up in two lines, each man being expected 

 to answer to his name. The muster-roll having been called, orders are given to prepare 

 for boat service; and the men break up into the necessary number of crews. After the 

 order ' Boats out ! ' is given, the men fall to work with a will, and the ten boats, each 

 containing a keg of water, oars, spars, sails, an axe, &c., are in three minutes properly 

 launched into the water, the captain from his place of vantage on the bridge looking 



* The Times, November 17th, 1875. 



