Manual of Ship Subsidies | Page 4

was under sail only.[S] She made the initial voyage, from
Savannah to Liverpool, in the Summer of 1819, and accomplished it in
twenty-seven days,[T] eighty hours of the time under steam.
Afterwards she made a trip to St. Petersburg, partly steaming and partly
sailing, with calls at ports along the way. Her gallant performance

attracted wide attention, but upon her return to America she finally
brought up at New York, where her machinery was removed and sold.
An English-built full-fledged steamer made the next venture, but not
until a decade after the _Savannah's_ feat. This was the _Curaçoa_, 350
tons, and one hundred horsepower, built for Hollanders, and sent out
from England in 1829. The third was by a Canada-built ship--the Royal
William, 500 or more tons, and eighty horsepower, with English-built
engines, launched at Three Rivers. She crossed from Quebec to
Gravesend in 1833. The next were the convincing tests that settled for
the Admiralty the question of transatlantic mail service by steamship
instead of sailing packet. These were the voyages out and back of the
Sirius and the Great Western in 1838.
The Sirius had been in service between London and Cork. The Great
Western was new, and was the first steamship to be specially
constructed for the trade between England and the United States. Both
were much larger than their three predecessors in steam transatlantic
ventures, and better equipped. The Sirius started out with ninety-four
passengers, on the fourth of April, 1838, and reached New York on the
twenty-first, a passage of seventeen days. The Great Western, also with
a full complement of passengers, left three days after the Sirius, sailing
from Bristol, and swung into New York harbor on the twenty-third,
making her passage in two days' less time than her rival. Both were
hailed in New York with "immense acclamation." They sailed on their
homeward voyage in May, six days apart, and made the return passage
respectively in sixteen and fourteen days. The Great Western on her
second homeward voyage beat all records, making the run in twelve
days and fourteen hours, and "bringing with her the advices of the
fastest American sailing-ships which had started from New York long
before her."[U] This clinched the matter. The Admiralty now invited
tenders for the transatlantic mail service, by steam, between Liverpool,
Halifax, and New York.
The first call for tenders was made in October, 1838. The St. George's
Packet Company, owners of the Sirius, and the Great Western
Steamship Company, owners of the Great Western, put in bids, the

former offering a monthly service between Cork, Halifax, and New
York for a yearly subsidy of sixty-five thousand pounds; the latter, a
monthly service between Bristol, Halifax, and New York for forty-five
thousand pounds a year.
Neither offer was accepted for the reason, as was stated, that a
semimonthly service was desired.[V] Instead, private arrangements
were made with Samuel Cunard and associates for a carriage between
Liverpool, Halifax, Quebec, and Boston, twice a month, for a term of
seven years, the subsidy to be sixty thousand pounds annually, less four
thousand pounds for making only one voyage a month in the winter
season.[W] The contract required Mr. Cunard and his associates to
furnish five ocean steamships and two river steamers, the latter on the
St. Lawrence.[V] There were also definite restrictions as to turning
their steamers over to the Government for use in time of war. All were
to be inspected by Admiralty officers, and were to carry officers of the
navy to care for the mails.[X] The service was started with the
Britannia, the first of the four to be finished, sailing from Liverpool for
Boston on July 4, 1840. Thus was begun the career of the celebrated
Cunard Line. In 1841 the subsidy was increased to eighty thousand
pounds, and the number of steamers to five; and in 1846, a further
increase brought the subsidy to eighty-five thousand pounds.[Y]
The Admiralty's favoritism toward the Cunard associates aroused a
protest from the unsuccessful bidders for the subsidy, and at length the
Great Western Company, whose bid had been the lowest, caused a
Parliamentary inquiry to be made into the transaction. They complained
that a monopoly had been granted "to their injury and to that of other
owners of steamships engaged in the trade, and who were desirous of
entering it"; and they asked the inquiry on the broad grounds "that the
public were taxed for a service from which one company alone derived
the advantage, and which could be equally well done and at less
expense if mails were sent out by all steamers engaged in the trade,
each receiving a certain amount percentage on the letters they
carried."[Z] Although the fact was brought out in the testimony that the
Great Western Company had offered to perform the