A General Plan for a Mail Communication by Steam, Between Great Britain and the Eastern and Western | Page 7

If the steamers are
allowed to become mere vessels of freight, or for carriage of goods, no
regularity in their voyages could be expected. To avoid delay, these
articles could be landed and taken to the Custom-house in every island
and place, and delivered thence, under the Revenue laws, to each
owner.
The greater extent to which combination can be carried on in the mail
circle, and the wider that that circle can be extended, so much cheaper
the labour of conveyance becomes, and the greater the returns
therefrom. Further, not merely the greatest possible speed, but the
greatest possible regularity, is the desiderata in the conveyance of mails
in any country: the latter, in particular, is more essentially necessary
than the former, and is, in fact, the life-spring of all commercial
communication.
The work to be performed, in every quarter, must not only be well done,
but done within a limited time, in order to render it beneficial and
effective. Powerful boats, that can overcome the distance and the
natural obstacles that present themselves, can alone do this.
Small-power boats can never accomplish the work. Numbers will not
overcome the difficulties, nor come, as regards time, within the limits
required.
Each packet steamer on each of the great lines, could and should return
unto Falmouth alternately, and the boats from Falmouth be prepared to
take the longer voyage in their stead. The time each will have to stop at
Falmouth will always allow of time for any material (p. 010)
examination and the repairs that may be necessary.
Without actual experience it is impossible to place before the public, in
a correct point of view, the whole appearance and state of steamers
employed in the West Indian mail service, as seen last year--when the
whole extent of their voyages was travelled over in more than one of
them:--imagine a small ill-contrived boat, an old 10-gun brig, as the
Carron is, for example, of 100-horse power, and thirty to forty tons of
coals on her deck; with a cabin about thirteen feet by ten, and an
after-cabin still smaller, both without any means of ventilation, except

what two ill-planned, narrow and miserable hatches, when open, afford.
Imagine a vessel like this starting from Jamaica, with ten or fifteen
passengers, and a crew of thirty-seven people, still more miserably
provided with room and quarters, to stem the currents, the trade
winds--(not to speak of storms,)--which blow, and the heavy seas
which roll, between that island and St. Thomas, especially in the
channel between the former and St. Domingo, and indeed in all the
West Indies: having the boiler immediately adjoining the cabin and
sleeping berths, and without any place to stow the luggage belonging to
the passengers,--and with the numerous mail bags crammed into the
small sleeping berths, or under the table,--and the public will have a
faint idea of a Government steam-boat; wherein, under a tropical sun
and a tropical rain, the passengers and crews are, with the hatches
closed, reduced to the choice, while choked with coal-dust, of being
broiled or suffocated. No human constitution can long stand this.
Without meaning any offence, truth must declare, that such a state of
things is a disgrace to England.
The most urgent haste and necessity can alone bring individuals to
travel by such conveyances, and none will do so whose time will allow
them to look for other modes of conveyance and transport. Female
passengers, in particular, without female attendants, or room for them,
will never willingly undertake, certainly never repeat, a voyage under
such circumstances. It would seem that, in this respect, the vessels
belonging to the most powerful, enlightened, and civilized Government
in the world, are to be placed far below the level of (p. 011) vessels
belonging to their own subjects, and those of other nations; although
such vessels are expressly appointed to convey passengers.
With these preliminary observations, it is proposed to consider the
details of a plan for the more extended conveyance of mails by
steam-boats, first to the WESTERN WORLD, under the separate heads
into which such a plan, necessarily and properly divides itself. In doing
this, it will satisfactorily appear that the more the plan is extended, the
less in proportion will the expenses attending the same be, and the
greater the returns be therefrom.

I. (p. 012)
Falmouth and Madeira, or one of the Western Islands, Department.
Either of the islands just named may be made central points of the
greatest importance for connecting the mail communications between
Great Britain and all the Western World. The Western Islands, however,
become a central point, more direct and convenient than Madeira, for
all the outward and homeward West Indian packets, and still more so
for all those which may be bound for New York and British North