166 Atlantic Steam Navigation. 



Thus it appears that one steam ship of 1600 tons register will 

 perform the work of eight saiHng ships of 400 tons each register 

 in the freight of goods only between New Orleans and Liverpool, 

 at less expense by £3146 10s. per annum. The petty expenses, 

 such as reporting the ship at the custom-house, advertising, and 

 the like, will always be in favor of the steam ships ; but in show- 

 ing the relative working power of the two classes of ships, it is 

 not necessary to enumerate trifles. It will however be apparent 

 to every candid inquirer, that if a steam ship can not only be 

 supported by carrying goods at the same rate of freight as a 

 sailing ship, but make a larger profit ; that when the collateral ad- 

 vantages of passengers, speed, and certainty of time, are taken 

 into consideration, the preponderance in favor of the steam is stri- 

 kingly obvious. 



Mercantile men will see, that as the time occupied by a steam 

 ship in performing a voyage is not half that of a sailing ship, the 

 sea risk is diminished in the same proportion, and consequently 

 the premium of insurance will not be more than half the amount 

 charged upon sailing ships. 



The sooner the shipper can get his goods to market, the better 

 for him ; and if he can do it in half the time by a steam ship, that 

 would be required by a sailing ship, it follows, as an inevitable 

 consequence, that one half the capital would carry on the same 

 amount of business in a steam ship, as would be required in sail- 

 ing ships ; because he could make two shipments or two importa- 

 tions, or both, in a steam ship, when he could make but one in a 

 sailing ship. The whole commercial capital employed in foreign 

 trade, upon the general introduction of steam navigation, will be 

 doubled in its powers of carrying on commerce, and twice the 

 amount of business done upon the present capital, or the same 

 business upon half the capital. 



If I have succeeded in establishing the proposition with which 

 I commenced, then we may give rein, and allow the imagination 

 to reach forward a few years, when sailing ships will become as 

 rare as steam ships are now, and when the ocean will be covered 

 with paddle-wheels instead of canvass. 



Astronomers make the circumference of this earth 24,000 miles : 

 steam navigators make it only 12,000. And although the breasts 

 of men will still rage, and the sources of war remain, yet the na- 

 tions of the earth will approximate, and a more subdued state of 



