1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



27 



noble minded disinterestedness is worthy of the men who aspire to create a 

 " national school of art," however the policy of insulting the whole profes- 

 sion may be questioned. For myself, I had every hope that the contractor 

 and architect for the Conciliation Hall would prove worthy of his patrons, 

 and fully realise the expectations they had formed of his abilities, and no 

 doubt when the union is repealed, they will find in the veteran undertaker t 

 person every way qualified to undertake the high office of " Surveyor-General 

 of Public Works for the Kingdom of Ireland." 



G. D. 

 Milford, Jan. \Zth, 1844. 



PACIFIC STEAM NAVIGATION. 



Mr. Wheelwright's Report on S/eam Navigation in the Pacijlc, nith 

 an Account of the Coal Mines of Chile and Panama. — 1843. 



Ir a proof were wanting of the extended nature of our steam navi- 

 gation and commercial interests, it would readily be found in the pro- 

 minent subjects of discussion at this moment, in connexion with trans- 

 atlantic and West Indian steam navigation, and the communication 

 with the Red Sea, India, the Brazilian coasts, and the Pacific. At the 

 same time that our operations are tlius extended, it is to be regretted 

 that they are not equally profitable, from circumstances which we shall 

 perhaps, ourselves, be called upon to discuss and consider on a sub- 

 sequent occasion. It is further to be regretted, at the same time, that 

 it presents a curious feature in the history of the subject, that a violent 

 and injurious paper warfare is going on between the projectors and 

 the companies. As if it were not sufficient to have a contest between 

 Mr. MacQueen and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, Mr. 

 Waghorn and the Peninsular and Oriental, Mr. Heathorn and the 

 Bahia, we have a new element of discord in the controversy between 

 Mr. Wheelwright and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, of 

 ■which the pamphlet now under consideration is the opening protocol. 

 We need scarcely say that we view such a combination of disturbing 

 circumstances with sincere pain for the result; on whichever side the 

 victory may be, it is sure to be to the injury of both combatants. Wars 

 of all kinds are active processes of destruction, whether fought on the 

 reeking battle field, or with the less sanguinary but atrabilarious weapons 

 of pen and ink, and, under present circumstances, property is depre- 

 ciated to a fearful extent. Of the four companies named, the shares 

 of all are miserably below their real value, and nearly unsaleable, 

 while a general distrust as to investment id tliis class of property is 

 being gradually diffused. 



The casus belli, in the present instance, is a simple one, and re- 

 quires but tu be stated to be thoroughly understood, and, in succinctly 

 stating it, we believe we shall be doing much more good than if we 

 recapitulated the invectives and inuendoes with which Mr. Wheel- 

 wright's book is charged. Mr. Wheelwright is a fine specimen of the 

 merchant captain, of that class to whose energies, to whose industry, 

 and to whose researches this country is largely indebted for the exten- 

 sion of its commerce and naval supremacy — employed for many years in 

 the Pacific, the desire of introducing steam navigation on the coasts of 

 the Spanish American countries, and of establishmg an active commu- 

 nication with this country, took strong possession of him. For a long 

 while he laboured assiduously in this cause, and by dint of great ex- 

 ertion, he succeeded in obtaining from the various governments exten- 

 sive and valuable privileges conditional on his carrying his plan into 

 effect. This preliminary step taken, of preparing the local interest, 

 Mr. Wheelwright came to this country at a most unfavourable period 

 for such a mission, every class of enterprise and industry suffering 

 under the severest and apparently most hopeless depression. Ulti- 

 mately, however, Mr. Wheelwright succeeded in inducing some of the 

 influential merchants connected with the Royal Mail Steam Packet 

 Company, and with South American commerce, to take up the plan, 

 and, in lb38, a Board of Directors was formed. At the same time, 

 among Mr. Wheelwright's own connexion in Liverpool and Glasgow, a 

 large number of shares was taken. After various delays in October, 

 1839, a contract was entered into for two steamers to be built in Lon- 

 don, and to be named the Chile and Peru. In 1840 a royal charter was 

 obtained limiting the responsibility of the shareholders to the amount 

 of the shares. By this time (the end of 1S40) the period was ap- 

 proaching, at which the privileges granted by tlie local governments 

 would have expired, and it became necessary to send Mr. Wheel- 

 wright to the Pacific to obtain their renewal, and prepare for the 

 recr|)tion of the steamers. In this mission he succeeded, and before 

 the end of 1S4U, the two steamers arrived at their destinations. Here 

 two new difficulties arose, the Royal Mail Steam Company's vessel 

 was removed from the Ch.igres station, so that the Panama traflfic was 

 virtually cut off, while from the hurried manner in which the Peru and 

 Chile were sent out, adequate measures could not be taken for the 



supply of coals. One cargo of 600 tons of new Welsh coal, turned 

 out a complete failure, and injured the machinery considerably. Cap- 

 tain Wheelwright was here again thrown upon his resources, and set 

 about obtaining coal from the coast. After vainly trying the rivers 

 Maule, Laraquita, and Valdiera, Mr. Wheelwright began working the 

 mines of Talcahuano, which he had already explored in 1834. Of 

 these mines he obtained a lease, and soon raised large supplies of ser- 

 viceable coal, of which nearly .5000 tons have since been taken at 

 an expense of about 15s. per ton, while " shafts have been sunk to the 

 depth of more than 100 ft.; machinery for raising the coal has been 

 made, workshops built, coal screens and coal carts provided ; a mole 

 300ft. long constructed; a railroad formed from the working shaft to 

 the end of the mole ; a breakwater erected for the protection of the 

 mines; launches built to convey the coal on board; in fact, all the 

 conveniences and material provided for the effectual keeping up and 

 working the mines. And all these important advantages have been 

 secured at an expense of only £2194, and under judicious arrange- 

 ments a full and ample supply of coal may alwavs be provided." 



Having effected this, Mr. Wheelwright remained in superintendence 

 of the affairs in the Pacific till the end of 1842, when, at the request 

 of the Directors, he returned to England, in his way exploring the 

 Isthmus of Panama, and the supply of coal there. Now, however, 

 we come to the tragic part of the performance. Hitherto we have 

 had to laud Mr. Wheelwright's energy, industry and enterprise, the 

 skill with which he combated obstacles and provided resources for 

 the conduct of the undertaking. No men, however, are faultless, still 

 less projectors, and Mr. Wheelwright, like too many of his brethren, 

 had early in the enterprise involved himself in disputation. The school 

 in which his energy and enterprise had been best cultivated, the mer- 

 chant navy, is but a poor school for discipline, things are carried out 

 upon too small a scale, and the relations are too simple to suggest the 

 artificial expedients requisite in large undertakings, and where many 

 individuals are concerned. Captain Wheelwright, while acting as 

 superintendent of the company's affairs in the Pacific, thought only of 

 the services he had performed in the suggestion of the undertaking 

 and the formation of tlie company, and of the large stake he and his 

 friends held in it. He felt a deep interest in it both personal and pe- 

 cuniary, and while he assumed a high degree of authority to himself, 

 he freely expressed his sentiments on the acts of the executive at 

 home. He forgot that as superintendent he ceased to be a partner, 

 and that instead of having to deal with mercantile co-partners, he was 

 under the official superiority, not of Messrs. George Brown, J. R. Tem- 

 pleman, J. N. Daniel, &c., but of an abstract body, the Directors of the 

 Pacific Steam Navigation Company, and on several occasions he in- 

 dulged himself not only in insubordinate strictures on the conduct of the 

 Directors in his correspondence with them, but also in his communica- 

 tions with his co-officials and third parties at home, shareholders in the 

 company. No board, whether they had acted rightly or wrongly, could 

 either consistently with their own dignity or with the interests of the 

 company which they represented, submit to this, and they firmly but 

 courteously called Mr. Wheelwright's attention to the subject, at the 

 same time that they showed every confidence in Mr. Wheelwright's 

 proceedings, and every disposition to allow him the legitimate exer- 

 cise of his own discretion and responsibility, (p. 43, 40, &c.) A course 

 like that pursued by Mr. Wheelwright was bad enough when carried on 

 at a distance, but still worse when he came into personal contact with 

 those over whom he seemed to consider that he rather held the superio- 

 rity, than that he was bound to recognise it in them. He seems to have 

 been totally incapable to discriminate between A & B and C & D, as pri- 

 vate individuals and as abstract personages engaged in the manage- 

 ment of the affairs of the company. Being at the same time totally 

 ignorant of the mode of conducting public business, he was ever led 

 into fresh difficulties, and ready to give and to take umbrage on the 

 most trivial occasions. Thus it is one of his grievances, as stated by 

 a partizan, that he was always politely requested to leave the board- 

 room while the directors were engaged in discussion, a course of pro- 

 ceeding which is well known to every one who has had experience in 

 committee business, and at which it could be supposed that few offi- 

 cers of a company could take umbrage, and still fewer expose them- 

 selves by making it a ground of public complaint. However, Mr. 

 Wheelwright's grievances did not end here, he brought plenty of 

 others about his ears, which forced on the directors his dismissal. 



As to Mr. Wheelwright's charges against the directors, they have 

 been fully considered by them, and are not worth going into, neither 

 should we do good by engaging in a controversy of the kind. We 

 think Mr. Wheelwright and everybody else miiy very quietly dismiss 

 them. We have every respect for Mr. Wheelwright's public ser- 

 vices, and we have every wish for the success of Ihe enterprise, and 

 we have only alluded to the subject of this pamphlet in the hopes 

 that some attention may be paid to the earnest expression of our de- 



