37(» STEAM NAVIGATION BY THE RED SEA. 



must be Macula, and the second Judda, as at present these 

 are both excellent ports for shipping coals, as a vessel can 

 lie close to the shore ; but having three stages instead of 

 two would cause a delay of at least two days ; and with two 

 Captain Wilson calculates the voyage from Bombay to 

 Suez cannot be performed to a certainty under twenty-five 

 days. But it appears to me, if one of three vessels was 

 kept at Mocha, and her furnace lighted as another hove in 

 siuht, this voyage would be reduced to three weeks, and 

 ample opportunity given to the steamers to put in order or 

 repair any slight injury to the machinery, as well as to pro- 

 cure supplies ; and with the establishment of packets the 

 communication might be kept up by vessels sailing every 

 five or six weeks from Bombay, and from Suez nine months 

 of the year. In June, July, and August a steamer would 

 easily come from the Red Sea ; but could not return against 

 the violence of the south-west monsoon. There would be 

 a great advantage in keeping a small steamer a^ Mocha, 

 from the power the Indian government would possess 

 of sending, on emergency, a saiUng vessel or boat during 

 five months of the year, which, having a fair wind, would 

 be certain of that passage in fifteen or sixteen days. With 

 this number of packets, and another armed steamer, carry 

 ing four or six guns, and not drawing more than eight feet 

 water, Bombay would be complete in this essential branch 

 of naval establishment. Besides the keeping up a rapid 

 communication with Europe by the Red Sea, that by the 

 Persian Gulf would be improved, and we should, beyond 

 ordinary service and putting down piracy, be prepared to 

 give efficient aid in every naval service in India. Nor is it 

 speculative to suppose that emergencies may arise on which 

 the ready application of this powerful arm of our force on 

 the Indus or the Euphrates might be of the most essential 

 service to the general interests of the empire. 



" To secure all these objects it is indispensable, in nay 

 opinion, that in whatever way steamers are employed in 

 this quarter, they should be exclusively navigated by the 

 Indian navy ; for it is of much importance that a scientific 

 knowledge of the engines and their management should be 

 generally diffused throughout this service. We must not 

 omit the opportunity to form men capable of performing 

 and directing all the duties which belong to such vessels 



