ON RIVER STEAMERS. 275 
labour for the cultivation of tea, the erops were so limited, that, in the ab- 
sence of support from the Bengal government, there was not sufficient traffic 
to maintain such expensive vessels on the Burhampootra. The ‘Assam’ and 
‘Naga’ were consequently employed on the Ganges, making eleven voyages 
to Allahabad. The other private steamers established on the Ganges were, 
in 1836, the Calcutta Steam-Tug Association, and from 1843 to 1845, the 
Ganges Steam Company and the General Inland Steam Navigation Com- 
pany. The latter adopted a system of long light-built steamers, carrying 
passengers and towing two small cargo-boats with dead wood and gripe, and 
provided with large barge rudders, like the government vessels, which 
“resulted in the loss of the first vessel, the ‘ Sir Herbert Maddock,’ in the 
Hooghly. The shares of this Company, like all other steam enterprises 
in India unsupported by government, have fallen to one-fourth their cost, 
while competing for freight with public steamers. The dimensions, tonnage, 
and the amount of engine power employed in these vessels are here presented 
in a tabular form for comparison, with the amount of capital invested dedu- 
cing from the displacement and weight of hull, the cost per ton of carrying 
capability at different drafts of water. 
38. Relative Financial Position, dependent on the capabilities for weight 
cargo, with Tabular Comparison of Vessels.—This Table (p. 276, § 37) shows 
the relative financial position of the different enterprises, at the same cost price 
per ton, and in horse-power or capital expended in obtaining a capability for 
weight vargo, at light drafts of water which in our Indian rivers is of more im- 
portance than high speed. This was practically proved in the large and power- 
ful *Mirzapore’and ‘Ghazeepore,’ which draw too much water to be profitably 
employed during the dry season, to obviate which they built large light tow- 
boats; but experience has recently shown this was getting into another diffi- 
culty of serious magnitude. A letter from Calcutta by last mail, states,— 
“It is but a short time ago the Ganges Company lost a tow-boat from the 
same cause, being an iron vessel, very light, and over 250 feet in length; in 
coming up the river through the Sunderbunds, she would not answer her 
helm in coming round a spit of sand, and in consequence came foul of a 
steamer, and, in fact, cut her own throat, going down soon after.” 
39. It will be seen from the Table that these are the longest and largest 
steamers on the Ganges, and were designed on the American system of large 
cargo steamers ; also that none of the present steamers on the Ganges carry 
any cargo at 2 feet draft of water. A reference to the capital columns shows 
a great increase of cost of capability as the draft of water decreases, the 
cost varying from £558 per ton at 3 feet; £88 at 4 feet in the steamers 
‘Patna’ and ‘ Benares ;’ while, with the Nautilus flotilla of one tug and three 
tow-boats I have proposed, the cost of capital will be £75 per ton at 2 feet 
draft, £31 per ton at 3 feet, and only £19 per ton at a load draft of 4 feet, 
with a capability of 360 tons of dead weight cargo between the four vessels. 
40. The relative capability for weight cargo of the various vessels whose 
particulars are given and shown on the Plan, will be best seen in the following 
Table (p. 276, § 41), in which the ratio of capability for weight cargo to the 
load displacement is stated for each, at the same draft of water, as well as 
their relative load displacements at the 3 feet load water-line. The Table also 
shows the draft at light water-line, with the displacement due to the weight of 
the several vessels, in tons; and also the ratio which this weight bears to the 
external bulk of the hull iv cubic feet, as affording the best criterion of the 
weight of material necessary for strength. 
42, Conclusions as to form, construction, and fittings of Nautilus Tug and 
